


With You By My Side

by ThePackWantstheD



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Domestic Fluff, Family, Family Dynamics, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Growing Up, I'll tag that when it becomes a thing but I wanted to warn you in advance, Jack's anxiety and stuff in later chapters, M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, Slice of Life, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-06-08 07:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6844234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In small town Georgia, kids grow up with their soulmates by their side. </p><p>The names on Eric Bittle's wrists were not that of his next door neighbors or his kindergarten classmates, but his mother hadn't let that stop her from making sure he grew up with them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: A Mother's Resolve

The thing about small town Georgia was that most people had a name on their wrist that belonged to someone else in their small town.

They get to build a whole childhood together. They get to whine about how girls have cooties or boys are gross and sweaty. They get to be rivals on t-ball teams or elementary school valentines. They get to shove each others faces into birthday cakes or play in the same sandbox. Sometimes they're high school sweethearts, sometimes they come together during college, sometimes they don't become something more until they're grown and settled into careers. But regardless of when they come together, they get all of their lives to make memories together.

Eric Bittle was born with a name on each wrist - a curling Jack Zimmermann on the left and a swooping Kent Parson on the right - and neither belonged to someone in town.

Most of the time, people let it go when their children were born with names that belonged to people from outside their town. They let fate carry them the way people who didn't live in small towns did.

Suzanne Bittle looked at those strange names and thought about her childhood.

She thought about sitting on her grandmother's lap in her rocking chair and listening to her remember how she and Suzanne's grandfather had snuck out of their houses when they were ten to go sledding in the middle of the night because Georgian snow was rare and treasured. She thought about being tucked into her bed and listening to bedtime stories about how her mother had gone to every one of her fathers middle school baseball games just to tell him how bad he was at it. She thought about swaying in the arms of her soulmate at her high school prom, the music soft and her chest warm.

She wanted her son to have that too.

Lying in a hospital bed with this baby in her arms that she already loved with all of her heart, she resolved to make sure he had it.

* * *

Alicia Zimmermann sat on a stool at her kitchen counter, tapping the house phone against the marble in a steady rhythm.

When she'd heard the phone ringing, she'd been prepared for a lot of things. She'd been prepared for her husband calling to tell her that he and Jack would be a little late returning from little hockey because they were going for ice cream. She'd been prepared for one of his former teammates calling to find him or her agent calling to talk to her. What she hadn't been prepared for was a woman with a honey sweet southern American accent telling her that her son was one of Jack's soulmate.

Alicia had been cautiously skeptical in the way that was necessary for someone in her position, but then the woman had introduced herself as Suzanne Bittle and given her the name of both her son and her son's second soulmate. She and Bob made sure to keep a guard over Jack's wrist whenever they were out in public to avoid any wayward fans of theirs trying to get close to them through him. The two of them and Jack's nanny were the only people who knew the names that were inked into his skin.

She'd stayed a little reserved as she asked the woman what the reason for her call was.

As Suzanne explained what she wanted to do, told her about her own childhood and the situation in the town they lived in, Alicia found herself warming up to her.

Alicia had told Suzanne she was would think about it and discuss it with her husband.

Now that they'd hung up and Alicia was alone in a quiet home, she couldn't stop thinking about this.

They hadn't planned on pushing Jack to look for his soulmate, Alicia and Bob's meeting hadn't been prearranged by anything other then fate, but now that the chance was in front of her she found herself wanting to take it.

Jack was so isolated from his peers. Some of the other NHL players had children, but there weren't a lot around his age and there were even less whose father's were as famous as Bob was. On top of that Jack's skill had already become a source of tension in his little league. Alicia had seen sneers from the parents of opposing players and teammates alike, but he was too young to move up to play with the bigger boys. And as much as she hated it, people were already comparing her nine year old to his father.

He didn't seem to mind it too much now, but Alicia wondered if that would change when her son grew up a bit and started caring more what the people around him thought. Already, she could see him beginning to notice how  his teammates would invite each other out without including him.

If he had his soulmates around, though, she wouldn't have to worry so much. Maybe they wouldn't be friends right off the bat, but his wrists told her he was going to come to trust and love and cherish them in time.

Alicia wanted Jack to have that and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure it happened.

* * *

Suzanne Bittle didn't get to say more then her name before Elise Parson hung up on her.

Both of Elise Parson's wrists were blank.

She should have known better then to get involved with someone who did have a name, but Kent's father had been charming and suave and the person besides her parents to tell Elise they loved her. She'd fallen into bed with him time and time again, listening to the sweet words he whispered into her ears.

When she'd found out she was pregnant, she'd been so excited to tell him. They were still in college, but she was sure they could make it work and she'd been so happy to be starting a family even if it wasn't planned.

He'd been significantly less enthusiastic. He had met her unbridled enthusiasm with demands to know why she thought he would be happy to be having a child with someone who wasn't his soulmate.

When she'd seen her son's wrists for the first time, she had made the decision not to do anything about them. If Kent wanted to look for them when he was older that was fine, but she wasn't going to encourage any delusions about soulmates that would lead to him hurting someone the way his father had hurt her. She didn't want him to put his life on hold and wait for someone that might take decades to come.

She'd never wavered in that decision before.

When she explained the situation to her husband, a man with wrists as blank as her own who loved her and who Kent had been calling daddy since he was four, in bed that night she was surprised when he argued with her decision.

Kent couldn't hurt someone because he was waiting for his soulmates if he'd already met them, he said.

She pointed out that the names on Kent's wrist were inky black with a romantic bond and they didn't need to be match making a nine year old.

He'd answered that there wasn't going to be anything romantic about the bond for several years and there was no reason to think about it as anything more then a play date.

She asked how he possibly think this was okay.

He told her that he just wanted Kent to be happy and the names on wrist were there because they would make him happy.

That had been enough to shut her up.

Elise thought about it for days before coming to a decision.

After dropping Kent off at school on her next day off, she went home and scrolled through the call log to find the number with the Georgia area code.

When Suzanne picked up, Elise explained the situation as much as she felt comfortable with.

Instead of judging her as so many others were, Suzanne gave her gentle understanding. She told Elise stories about her own childhood, reassuring her that the boys would still grow up like other kids even when they'd already met their soulmate, and suggested having their first meeting in New York so Elise would be more comfortable.

By the time they hung up the phone, Elise was starting to feel like maybe this would be a good thing for Kent.


	2. June 2000

Eric held on to his mother's hand as they walked up the path to the door.

His other hand was gripping the strap of his new backpack. He had stared at the selection at the store for almost an hour when he'd chosen it. Mama had said he would be using it when school started in a few months as well, so he had to be sure he picked out the very best one. The bag he'd chosen was blue with a fox on it that had dark orange fur. Right now it was filled with coloring books and toys that Eric had gotten to use on the plane ride.

When they reached the door, his mother gave it two sharp knocks.

Eric looked around as they waited for the door to open. The house was a lot like his own, only the siding on it was a dark green instead of sharp white. There was a garage, but the door was shut and there were two cars in the driveway. There was a netted goal pressed against the center of the garage door and a basketball hoop off to the left of it.

When he heard the swish of the door opening, Eric looked up.

The woman standing in the doorway had wispy blonde hair that was pulled on top of her head and green eyes that glinted in the sun.

"Hello, Suzanne?" the woman said, her voice just a little questioning.

"Yes," Eric's mother said. He turned his head up to her, watching as a smile spread over her face. "It's nice to meet you in person finally, Elise. Thank you for having us over."

"It's nice to meet you as well." The woman, Elise, reached up with one pale hand to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. "And honestly, it's my pleasure." Her gaze drifted away from Suzanne, coming down to Eric. Her smile went a little softer at the edges. She crouched down to his height, "And you must be Eric, right?"

Eric pressed his lips together and stayed silent.

"It's okay, baby. You can talk to her." Suzanne gave a soft laugh before telling Elise, "With kindergarten coming up we've been talking about stranger danger. Eric's really taken the whole 'don't talk to people you don't know' thing seriously."

"That's good. Kent's so sociable that that lesson went right over his head. I had to watch him like a hawk," Elise said. She held a hand up, giving Eric a little wave. "Hi Eric. I'm Elise."

With his mother's permission and an introduction - because now that he knew her name, she wasn't a stranger right? - Eric felt comfortable enough to say, "You know a Kent?"

"Yup," she said with a nod. "That's my son's name."

"That's my soulmates name," Eric said. He held his wrist out, showing her the name printed there. "See?"

"What a strange coincidence." Elise voice was painted with amusement as she said, "Would you like to meet him? He's a little older then you, but I think the two of you will get along."

"Yes!" Eric said, excited at the prospect of making a new friend.

"Why don't you and your mama come inside then? Kent's in his bedroom with a friend. I'll show you where it is."

As she straightened up and stepped back so they could enter, Suzanne asked, "Alicia's here already?"

"Yes. The two of them got here earlier this morning," Elise said. Suzanne stepped into the house first and Eric trailed after her. "She's in the kitchen right now if you want to go see her. I'll join you after I introduce Eric to the boys."

"I'd love to." Elise turned to close the door and Suzanne looked at Eric, "Are you okay with meeting Kent and his friend without me?"

Eric wasn't a shy child at all. He made friends easily and loved talking to people, so he gave an quick nod.

His mother pressed a kiss to his forehead before waving Eric off so he could follow Elise down the hallway. 

* * *

Jack hadn't been very keen on the idea meeting his soulmates when his mother suggested it.

It wasn't necessarily that he didn't get along with his teammates or classmates. Most of them were nice. It was just that none of them seemed to really like Jack. They didn't have a problem including him when they were running drills or when their teacher put them in groups, but he was rarely the person someone asked to color with them or to partner with them for passes.

He was terrified that his soulmates would be the same way, that they would be polite to him but ultimately not care whether he was there or not.

Some of his fear had started to ease now that he had met Kent, the blonde seemed happy to meet Jack and had literally pulled Jack to the bedroom to play as soon as their mothers had given the go ahead, but he still felt a little anxious when he thought about Eric. What if he got here and Kent decided that Eric was more fun then Jack was? What if Eric didn't want to play with Jack at all?

He tried his best to push those thoughts out of his head as they played.

The two of them were sitting on Kent's floor when they heard knuckles tap twice against the door. They were facing each other as they colored in their respective books, Kent lying on his stomach with his feet in the air while Jack sat with his legs folded under him, Jack's book was filled with dinosaurs while Kent's had kittens. Kent had a large shoe box full of colored pencils and crayons that they had sat between them.

Both boys looked up from their pictures, Jack was coloring a triceratops with penguin colors while Kent was coloring a cat orange while talking about his grand plan to convince his mother to buy him one for his tenth birthday, as Kent's mother cracked open the door.

"What are you two doing?" she asked.

"Coloring!" Kent said. While Jack was watching her, his mother had taught him to always look at a grown up when they were speaking to him, Kent focused back on his picture.

"That sounds fun," she said. "I hope you two don't mind sharing your crayons with another person."

Jack felt his fear and panic flare.

He could see Kent's mother speaking, but he couldn't hear the words coming out of her mouth.

She opened the door a little wider and gestured behind her.

Boy with sandy blonde hair and dark eyes peeked around her leg.

All at once, Jack's panic faded away.

When he had met Kent, a feeling had spread over him that had Jack grinning so hard his teeth showed. He had felt giddy and excited. It reminded him of trouncing through the snow in Quebec as he hurled snowballs at his father and roaring with laughter as his mother chased him in the ocean during their vacation last summer.

Seeing this boy, seeing Eric, reminded him of snuggling under his blankets at night while his parents whispered in the room next door and the cold smell of a hockey rink. Jack felt safer, calmer.

There was something else lingering under his skin as well.

It felt like something had clicked into place.

He hadn't noticed that it wasn't right before, but now that it was it seemed glaringly obvious that something had been wrong before.

He tuned in to the conversation abruptly, catching the end of Kent's mother's sentence, "-nice okay?"

Kent let out a sigh that made it clear how silly he thought whatever his mother had said was. "We're not gonna bully him, mama. He's our soulmate."

"Is that right?" she said, sounding amused.

"Yeah! We're not going to be the bullies, we're gonna protect him from them." Jack saw Kent moving out of the corner of his eye and turned towards him. Kent had looked away from his drawing again and their eyes met. "Right, Jack?"

Jack didn't even need to think about it before giving a fierce nod.

Eric was younger than them and smaller than them. It seemed obvious to him that the two of them would protect him.

"Well alright then," she said. She stepped aside so Eric could enter the room fully. "Have fun. We're in the kitchen if you need anything."

* * *

Kent colored with Jack and Eric for a while. Then they'd gone out to play hockey in the driveway because Eric said he didn't know what it was and neither Jack or Kent could let that go by. They'd played until their mothers called them in for dinner, Eric's mother had cooked a meal that made Kent's mouth water, and then they'd watched The Mighty Ducks because Eric had never seen it and Jack and Kent couldn't let that slide either.

When the credits on the movie rolled and his mother entered the room. Eric and Jack's mothers followed behind her. The three of them had gone back to the kitchen once they'd gotten the movie playing. Kent had wandered in there at some point to grab another juice box and heard them talking about how Eric was starting kindergarten in the fall. He thought it was kinda stupid that they were talking about school when it'd only gotten out a week ago.

"Alright," his mother said, clapping her hands together. "I think it's time for bed."

Despite all that they'd gone, Kent felt like he hadn't been with them nearly long enough.

"Mama no," Kent whined, though his eyelids felt heavy. The three of them were all pressed together on the couch, Eric inbetween the two older boys. "I don't wanna go to bed while Jack and Bitty are here."

"Bitty?" Eric's mother said, sounding amused.

Jack's voice was heavy with sleep as he muttered, "'Cause he's tiny like the ittsy bittsy spider."

"Well, if you don't go to sleep soon then you'll be too tired to play with Jack and Eric in the morning," Jack's mother said. "You wouldn't want that, would you?"

Kent thought about it for a minute. She had a point, but... "I don't want them to leave though."

"They won't," his mother assured. "Jack and Eric are staying the whole week remember?"

This still wasn't acceptable as far as he was concerned.

"Can we sleep together?" Jack said.

Kent found that was indefinitely preferable to not being able to see Jack and Bitty until morning. He looked at his mother, begging, "Please, mama?"

She looked over her shoulder at the other two grown ups in the room.

They were quiet for so long that Kent thought he was going to die before they gave an answer.

"I haven't checked into my hotel room yet," Jack's mom said at last. "If you've got the room for all of us, I don't mind staying here instead."

"Neither do I," Eric's mother agreed. "My husband would probably jump for joy if I came home without spending the money the hotel was costing me."

His mother gave a soft hum. "The boys could all fit in Kent's bed. We've got a guest room and the couch pulls out so we've got the space."

"That could be fine," Jack's mother agreed. "Suzanne and I can alternate on who takes the guest room and who sleeps out here."

Eric's mother gave a small nod.

"Alright then, the three of you can sleep together tonight," his mom said. Kent pumped his fists in the air victoriously. "But you have to go to sleep, Kent. No staying up to talk or play."

Kent nodded eagerly. He could follow the rules for the night."Yes mama."

"Okay then. Let's get Jack and Eric's toothbrushes from their bags so you guys can brush your teeth before you change."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so a few things.  
> 1) these first two chapters are really not the best indication of what the format for this story will be and I'm really sorry about that. But the format I'm going to use just doesn't work well for the introductions. I'm actually toying with the idea of making this first chapter a prologue as well but it doesnt really /fit/ as a prologue so....DECISIONS.
> 
> 2) You'll notice that Bitty's section on this has a lot less about his personal thoughts on the whole thing. This is because Bitty is /five/ in this chapter whereas Kent and Jack are both nine. I know five years olds can think on their own and stuff, but I'm so unsure about what that would sound like. It's part of why I really don't like Bitty's section in this. 
> 
> 3) I'm so uncertain as to whether I handled Jack okay here?? I mean, I don't remember how I felt at nine because that was almost nine years ago and neither am I an expert in child psychology you know? So let me know how you felt. I feel like he's just too grown up?? Espesically compared to Kent who definitely has a more childish perspective here. 
> 
> 4) Also, you'll notice that Jack mentions feeling a different feeling when seeing Bitty for the first time then seeing Kent for the first . This is because even in a triad the relationships between people are different and what he gets from Kent is different then what he gets from Bitty.These feelings also kind of reflect what Jack will get from the bond as it grows in the future. Their precognitive in a way? Hopefully you understood that from my descriptions. 
> 
> 5) Jack feels things kinda /click/ when he meets Bitty. Just in case were weren't clear, it's because the three of them are all /together/ not simply because he met Bitty specifically? If that makes sense? Kent's still a very important part of the bond.
> 
> 6) It might seem like Kent's mother is too accepting and understanding in this chapter given her reluctance in the prologue, but honestly she's had months inbetween the initial call and the boys first meeting to deal with things. 
> 
> 7) I feel like i shouldn't explain things this much but at the same time i'm like "wHAT IF I FUCKED UP AND THEY DON'T GET IT???"


	3. June 2000

There was a steady rhythm to their days that week.

Jack and Alicia woke up before everyone else and would cook breakfast. Kent was disgruntled by the lack of sugary cereal on the first day, but let it go when he tasted Alicia's pancakes.

The boys would spend the rest of the morning in the house. They would curl up together on the couch to watch their morning cartoons before running off to play. One day they pulled Kent's foam swords from the toy chest in his room and pretended to be pirates. One day they sat the kitchen table and made themselves crowns out of aluminium foil which they colored with markers. One day Kent and Jack spent the morning telling Bitty stories about school because he was nervous about starting kindergarten.

Elise would usually cook lunch for the boys and then they were always off to play outside. Usually they could be found in the driveway, sometimes shooting pucks into the goal and sometimes shooting basketballs into the net, but they wandered into the backyard as well.

No matter what they were doing, all three boys managed to come back covered in dirt in the way that all boys did.

While the boys were taking their baths, Suzanne made dinner. Bitty would lend her a hand while Jack or Kent were in the bathroom.

After they ate all six of them would end up in the living room to watch a movie before bed. There was room on the couch for two of the woman and then an arm chair for whoever remained, so the boys would curl up on the floor with one of Kent's blankets. They took turns without their mothers having to ask them, none of them wanting to make the others unhappy. It also seemed like they'd agreed to chose movies that at least one of them hadn't seen so that they could share the experience. Kent chose Mrs. Doubtfire on one of his nights and Jack laughed so hard that the apple juice he'd been drinking came out of his nose. Bitty chose The Parent Trap and Kent spent an hour insisting that they should absolutely try to put his bed on the roof because that looked awesome. Jack chose the Iron Giant and Bitty cried so much that it took them three cookies to get Jack to stop crying about the fact that he'd made Bitty cry.

Once their movie ended, it was off to bed for the trio. When teeth were brushed and pajamas put on, they squeezed themselves together on Kent's bed.

All three of their mothers' were pleasantly surprised when they fit the first night. They'd been anticipating having to tell the boys that sleeping together would have to be just in the same room, so it was a relief that they didn't have to deal with the fall out from that.

Elise and Kent were in the middle of reading "How to Eat Fried Worms" as a bedtime story, but Kent let Bitty pick a different story on the first night so that Jack and Bitty would understand what was going on as well. They ended up reading Andrew Clement's "No Talking." Bitty could read a bit, but enough to get through the book so Jack and Kent took turns. If they came across words they didn't know, the two of them would consult each other before asking their mothers.

The way they seemed to turn to each other instinctively, happy and trusting in each others presence, made their mothers smile. It never failed to relieve their worries about letting the boys meet when they were so young.

* * *

"It's okay," Jack said. His voice was soft as he spoke to Bitty. He was gripping both of Bitty's hands in his own, skating backwards so he could keep his eyes on the five year old. "I won't let you fall."

It was Saturday, the last day before the Zimmermann's and Bittle's headed home, and they were at the ice arena few miles away from Kent's house. They had a rink that was open for free skate all day, for a price of only five dollars, and the boys had wanted to take Bitty skating for the first time since he'd never gone.

"Even if you do fall, it'll be worth it," Kent said. While Suzanne had been lacing up Bitty's rented skates, he and Jack had done a few warm up laps together. Now that Jack was leading Bitty onto the ice, Kent was hovering to the side. He wanted to stay near them without being in the way. "Skating is fun."

"It won't be fun if I fall and get hurt," Bitty argued. He was gripping Jack's hands tightly as he stepped onto the ice with wobbling legs.

Kent gave a small hum. "I guess you won't play hockey with us if you're afraid of getting hurt."

"He doesn't even know how to skate yet and you want him to play hockey with us?" Jack questioned. There was a hint of disbelief in his tone.

"I didn't mean today," Kent said, drawing out the words to make it clear how ridiculous he thought Jack was being. "I just meant in the future, you know? Because I'm going to play professional hockey and you're going to play professional hockey, so I thought maybe Bitty would play hockey too. But he probably won't like checking."

"Checking?" Bitty asked. He'd picked up a lot of terms while listening to Jack and Kent talk, but this wasn't one of them.

"It's when someone slams you into the boards," Kent explained.

Bitty's eyes went wide with fear.

Jack squeezed Bitty's hands, "It's okay. You have to wear a lot of pads when playing hockey so it doesn't hurt very much."

"Really? You're not lying?"

"Nope." He looked over his shoulder, "Right, Kent?"

"Right!" Kent agreed with a nod.

"And besides," Jack said, "père says that he plays better when mère and I are in the stands. So Bitty doesn't have to play hockey with us. He can be our good luck charm!"

"That's good," Kent said, giving an approving nod. "Okay. Bitty, you're our good luck charm so you don't have to play hockey, but we should still teach you the rules. Otherwise you're gonna be really confused in the stands."

"Not right now though," Jack assured. "Right now we're just gonna teach you how to skate."

Some of the tension in Bitty's shoulders eased out. It wasn't their declaration that he didn't need to play hockey that did it, he didn't know enough about hockey to care about that, but because Kent's voice echoing through the rink and Jack's hands in his made him feel safe.

It would hurt to fall, and he was still a little afraid of it, but he knew the two of them would be there to pick him back up again. 

* * *

Sunday morning was a rough affair.

From the moment the boys woke up, they were aware that they only had a few more hours together.

Kent was angry. If he wasn't snapping at someone, then he was glaring at something. Bitty couldn't stop crying. Despite having objected to getting picked up during the rest of the week, Suzanne held him all morning as the boy buried his face in her neck. Jack was more sullen and quieter then he usually was.

Not wanting to drag anything out, Suzanne and Alicia decided they would leave at the same time. Alicia would be driving up to Montreal with Jack and Suzanne and Bitty would be taking a cab to the airport so they could catch their flight.

When everyone had eaten breakfast, it was time for goodbyes.

The boys were a tangle of limbs as they hugged.

They stayed like that until Suzanne managed to swallow the lump in her throat and insist they had to leave before they missed their flight.

When the boys pulled apart, there were tears in all three of their eyes that had their mothers chests tightening.

Elise and Kent stood on the front steps as both cars left. The second both of them had turned around the corner, Kent turned and wrapped his mother around her. He buried his face in her side and Elise ran her fingers through his hair as his body began to shake.

* * *

Alicia arrived at home late that night.

The sky had gone dark a few hours ago, but Bob stepped outside as soon as she pulled into the drive.

As she climbed out of her seat, he opened the backdoor and unbuckled Jack. He lifted the sleeping boy out of the car, cradling him against his chest and being careful not to wake him. Jack's head fell onto his shoulder.

"Welcome home," Bob whispered when Alicia drew near him. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," Alicia said, keeping her voice equally low. She set her hand on Jack's lower back as she leaned over to press a kiss to her husband's lips.

They fell into step with each other as they walked to the door.

Bob said, "You didn't tell me very much on the phone. How did it go?"

"Fantastic," she said without hesitation. "I've never seen Jack look so happy and comfortable with other kids."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She couldn't help the sigh that left her lips. "Tearing him away from them this morning broke my heart. As happy as I am that they like each other so much, I can't help wondering if it was cruel of us to let them meet when we knew they wouldn't be able to stay together."

"They are together though," Bob said. "Maybe they aren't physically, but they'll keep in contact. Jack will never really be alone again and isn't that why you were so insistent on us doing this? So that Jack would have someone?"

Alicia looked at him for a minute before giving a soft, quiet laugh. "Look at you getting something right for once."

"Osmosis," he remarked. "With a soulmate as beautiful and smart as you, I was bound to pick something up eventually."

"Flattery will get you everywhere, love."

Bob let out a laugh of his own. "Will it now?"

"Yup. Get Jack to his bed and I'll show you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Okay so this chapter is a little more like the format I'm going to be using for this fic, though not completely it. I'm sorry it's taking me so long to settle it, it's just that I needed to get past their first meeting before settling in.  
> 2) Someone mentioned it in a comment so just incase you guys hadn't picked it up - this fic is gonna be like...pure fluff for a while? I refuse to make small children sad. Once they grow up a bit it's free game tho.  
> 3) There seems to be some confusion so let me clarify - according to the wiki both Jack and Kent were both in 1990? Which means they are both nine in the beginning of this fic because it starts in June of 2000. Bitty has just turned five and Kent is a month from 10.
> 
> FINALLY!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT?? Like honestly, I'm blown away by the response to this story.


	4. July - August 2000

Jack had always spent most of his summer with his father.

When Bob had still been playing, he spent the fall training, the winter playing for the regular season, and the spring playing in playoff games. The summers were filled with days where he didn't have to focus on anything other then Jack and Alicia. He tried to stick to his diet, but he never hesitated to take Jack out for ice cream or share a snow cone with him when they were on vacation. He exercised in his home gym and only went out on the ice if Jack asked him to practice drills with him.

Now that Bob was retired, it was Jack who was busy during the rest of the year. Bob didn't wake up until Alicia had already gotten Jack up and taken him to school. After school, Jack was off to the local arena for hockey practice. Bob never missed a single game, but he couldn't exactly talk to his son while he was playing. The summers were the times when they would stumble into the kitchen at the same time and Bob would pour them both bowls of whatever cereal they had. They were times when Bob would take Jack to the Science Center to see the dinosaurs or to the history museum so Jack could look at whatever he was interested in. They were the times when Jack would curl up on the couch with Bob to watch a movie and fall asleep with his head against his fathers shoulder.

The summer of 2000 was mostly the same, except now Bob was hearing about Kent and Bitty anytime they went somewhere.

One of the museums opened a new exhibit on pirates and Jack insisted on taking a whole collection of photos because Kent would love it. When they got home, Bob spent a good three hours going through the photos with him so that he could email Kent the best ones. When the carnival came in town, Jack gave him a two hour lecture on what Suzanne Bittle said was the best way to bake apple pie and how Bitty wasn't quite as good at it as his mom was but Jack knew he was going to be one day. When they went to practice drills, Jack spent the whole time he was lacing up his skates telling Bob about the day he and Kent had spent teaching Bitty to skate.

Jack was talking about his soulmate so often that Bob was starting to feel like he'd been with them in New York that weekend instead of at home alone.

It was clear how much he adored the two of them. As happy as Bob was that Jack connected with his soulmates and finally had friends his age, he couldn't help worrying about it a bit.

Bob worried that Jack would be so content with Kent and Bitty that he wouldn't seek out other companionship. Soulmates were fantastic, but they couldn't be the only people in your life.

But, he figured it was better for Jack to have them then to have no one at all.

* * *

Jack sat in the computer chair, waiting patiently as Bob reached over him to set up the video call. The only outward sign of his eagerness was the way he was gripping his jeans.

It was just the two of them that afternoon. Usually Alicia set Jack's calls with Kent and Bitty up, but today she was out for filming which left Bob to get him settled and supervise.

"Alright. buddy," Bob said as he moved the mouse to the button. "You ready?"

"Yes, père," Jack said. A hint of eagerness slipped into his voice that had Bob's lips tipping upwards.

He ruffled Jack's hair before stepping out of the way.

Kent and Bitty's faces filled the screen instantly.

"Jack, look!" Kent exclaimed. His face was grainy and his voice faded out in place, but it brought a smile to Jack's face. He scooted a little further up in his chair so he was closer to the computer. "Look what mama got me for my birthday!"

Kent was holding a fluff orange and white cat up to the camera. His cheek was pressed against the cat's side.

"You got a cat," Jack said.

"I told you mama would get me one," Kent declared. He lowered the cat. Jack could see it sitting on Kent's keyboard as Kent ran a hand through it's fur."Bitty and I were talking about what to name it while we were waiting for you."

"Did you pick one yet?"

Bitty shook his head. "Kent's stuck between Kit Purrson and Zimbits."

Jack's eyebrows furrowed, "Zimbits?"

"It's both of your names! Zim from Zimmermann and Bits from Bittle." Kent explained, "If I name him that then having him around would be like having the two of you around all the time."

"Wouldn't that just make you sad though?" Bitty asked. "I mean, I get sad when I think about you guys because your so far away. So wouldn't naming the cat after us make you think about us more and then it'd make you sad."

Kent's eyebrows furrowed for a second. He hung his head a bit, staring at the cat with down turned lips. "I didn't think about that."

Jack didn't like the sad look on Kent's face, so he pointed out, "Kit Purrson is a funny name though. You should use that."

"You think so?" Kent asked. He seemed to perk up a bit now that he was thinking about something else. "I thought it was really clever."

"It's cute," Bitty agreed.

"What else did you get for your birthday?" Jack questioned, wanting to keep the conversation moving lest Kent start thinking about their distance again. "Did my present come in the mail?"

Bitty made a small excited sound, "Mine too! Did you get mine?"

"Yeah! Thank you!" Kent said. His mouth had split into his usual toothy smile. It loosened something in Jack's chest. "The sweets you sent me look really good, Bitty! Mama says I'm not allowed more then one a day though. And where did you find that sword Jack? It's super cool!"

Kent ran away with the conversation, chattering excitedly about the other presents he'd received at his birthday party the night before. Occasionally Bitty would cut in to ask a question about something.

It didn't bother Jack. He was content to sit in his chair with his legs folded under him and Kent and Bitty's voices flooding through the speakers for as long as his father would let him. 

* * *

As far as Kent was concerned, being ten was radically different then being nine.

There were double digits in his age, he wasn't a child anymore.

He was a big kid. He had a cat and two soulmates. He had responsibilities.

So, once they finished their book he told his mom that he was too big for bedtime stories. He thought she was going to be upset, some of his friends from school had told him that their moms started crying, but she had just looked at him for a moment before smiling and agreeing with him.

At dinner one day, he told his parents that he wanted to start doing chores. When they asked him way, he told them that he wanted to be able to buy Jack a birthday present. They had exchanged a look before his father said that he would be more then happy to give Kent the money for a present. Kent had just shook his head and told them that he had to buy it himself because Jack was his soulmate, not theirs. There had been another look before they had given him another smile and agreed. The next morning there was a list on the fridge of optional chores Kent could do and dollar amounts for each one. He would get paid for whatever he did on Friday each week.

Now that he was seeking out responsibility and actively asking for it, his parents started giving him it without much fuss. On a Saturday that wasn't too hot, his mother told him he didn't have to stay in the neighborhood when riding his bike anymore as long as he was home each day for lunch and dinner. When Kent for permission to go into the garage to grab the sidewalk chalk, his father told him it wasn't locked and as long as Kent didn't touch the tools he was free to go in there whenever he wanted now. When they were making the grocery list, they told Kent that he could put whatever he wanted on it as long as he didn't get carried away even though previously he wasn't allowed to touch it.

All of it made Kent feel good about himself.  
  
Knowing that his parents trusted him to do things on his own felt good.

It made him more conscious of his actions, yes, but it also made him stand a little straighter. 

* * *

Kent stood in the middle of the aisle, examining the shelf in front of him with a serious expression. He looked over the items there for a long time before letting out a frustrated huff.

"None of it's right," he complained.

"There's not anything you think Jack will like?" his father asked. He was standing on the other side of the aisle with his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the shelf behind him. Even though they'd been at the mall for almost two hours, going store to store as Kent looked for a present, his smile was still more amused then exhausted.

"I didn't say that," Kent said. He turned to face him, a pout on his lips and his own arms crossing over his chest. "It's just that I want to get him something perfect and none of this is perfect."

"Buddy, Jack's going to like anything you get him."

"I know, which is why I want to get him something perfect," Kent insisted. "I don't want him to like it just because it came from me."

"What's wrong with him liking something a little more because you got it for him?"

"Birthdays are supposed to be about you and if I give Jack something I like then it's about me instead," Kent said, giving his father a look that made it clear just how stupid he thought the man was being. "And that'd be bad."

His father seemed stunned for a minute before he let out a soft laugh. "When did you get so smart, kiddo?"

Kent puffed up a bit, feeling offended, "I've always been smart."

"You have, haven't you?" he said. He watched Kent for a minute before letting out a sigh. "Do me a favor and stop growing up, okay?" He reached out and ruffled Kent's hair, tousling the blond locks so they were sticking out at all angles. Before Kent could object to the treatment, he said, "There's a sports store on the second level isn't there? Why don't we go see if there's anything up there that Jack will like?"

"Jack already has a ton of hockey stuff," Kent said, but followed him out of the store despite his complaints.

"That's because Jack likes hockey as much as you do," he pointed out. "And since you're always happy to have more hockey stuff, I'm sure Jack will be too. Right?"

Kent spared it a moment of thought before nodding, "Okay."

* * *

Bitty was surrounded by bonded pairs.

The girls who lived on either side of house were bonded. When they sat on the floor around Caroline's Easy Bake oven and waited for their brownies to cook, Caroline and Daisy would lean against the dresser with their hands linked and their names on each others wrists open for everyone to see.

Dick, a middle schooler whose back fence linked up with Bitty's, was bonded to the police chiefs daughter, Barbara. His younger brother, Jason, was bonded to Tim, who lived next door to them. Sometimes when Bitty was playing in his sandbox, Jason and Dick would hop over the fence to play with him and he would see the script on their wrists.

Jamie, the high school senior who lived across the street with his grandmother and Bitty's father's star quarter back, was bonded to a pretty girl named Lucy who was two years younger then him. Lucy was a cheerleader, but whenever Bitty went to a game she would pick him up and give him one of her pom-poms so they could cheer for Jamie together.

It had never bothered Bitty before, but the day after he got back from New York he saw Dick doing flips off his swing set for Barbara he had burst into tears.

When his mother swept him up into her arms and asked him what was wrong, he started babbling about how he wanted Kent and Jack. It wasn't fair that Barbara and Dick got to play in Dick's backyard, but Kent and Jack were really far away and Bitty couldn't see them.

She held him as he cried, rubbing her hands up and down his back and cooing softly into his ear. He clung to her tee-shirt and buried his face in her neck.

It didn't get much better as the summer dragged on.

The day of a video call he was always anxious and easily excited no matter who he saw and the day after he was the same ray of sunshine as he'd always been with anyone who bumped into him, but any other day being around bonded pairs made him withdraw.

He wasn't crying everytime Jamie and Lucy were over for Sunday dinner anymore, but he talked less on those nights. Caroline and Daisy started to invite him over again, for a while they didn't because Bitty's tears kept getting into their cake batter, but he always wore long shirts because he didn't like looking at Jack and Kent's names when his wasn't right next to it like theirs were. Jason and Dick were out in their backyard more often, they'd kept themselves in the house for a while because Dick felt bad about making Bitty cry that first day, but Bitty still went inside whenever Tim or Barbara were over.

They were only a few weeks away from the beginning of the school year when they finally found a solution. 

* * *

Bitty had a tight grip on Coach's hand as they walked through the door, but the second it closed behind them it loosened.

When his dad had first suggested them going to the ice rink on his last day off before he left for summer camp with his team, Bitty had been afraid that he'd burst into tears the second he was inside the building.

Rather then wanting to cry, Bitty felt much better then he had since returning to Georgia.

He remembered how cold Jack's hands on been in his when he was teaching Bitty to skate and he could hear someone laughing the same way Kent had as he skated circles around them. The smell of the food at the concession stand reminded Bitty of the nachos he and Kent had split while Jack ate a salad his mother had packed for him. Over all of the noise in the lobby, he could hear the sharp clack of hockey sticks that made him think of the one-on-one game Kent and Jack had played on the ice when Bitty decided he was too tired and cold to skate with them any longer.

"How are you feeling, buddy?" his dad asked. Bitty turned his head up to find his father was looking down at him. "Do you want to go?"

"No!" Bitty shrieked. His grip tightened again, but this time it was to keep his father from leaving rather then for comfort. "We can't leave, daddy!"

"No?"

Bitty gave a furious shake of his head. "It reminds me of Jack and Kent!"

He seemed a little confused as he said, "But you don't want to leave?"

"No," Bitty confirmed. "Because it doesn't remind me that they're far away, it just reminds me of them."

"Ahh...."

"Can we go buy a bracelet?" Bitty asked, tugging his dad towards the concession stand. There was a giant sign of it that gave a list of food as well as a listing that read 'Public Skate - $5'. Bitty wasn't very good at reading yet, but that much he understand. "Please, daddy? I want to skate."

His father gave a deep rumbling laugh and let Bitty tug him along. "Okay kiddo. If you're sure you wanna be here."

"I am," Bitty said, and there was really no doubt about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) so there are web cams in this chapter?? Wikipedia says they started being integrated into desktops and stuff around the late 1990s, early 2000s? I'm trying my best to keep this technologically intact but I wasn't very old during this period so maybe let's just...pretend if something doesn't match.  
> 2) the first section of this was supposed to be in Jack's perspective....but then Bad Bob happened?? I hope it doesn't bother anyone that way?  
> 3) you may think Kent's reaction to turning ten is dramatic, but when I was like... 3? My parents told me I had to get rid of my pacifiers by the time I turned 4 (there was some choice here?? But I don't remember it?) and apparently I woke up on my fourth birthday and dumped them all in the trash without prompting? So I don't think Kent making changes when he's older then that is too odd.  
> 4) I try to make this as much about their personal growth as it is about the growth of their relationship? Let me know if I missed the mark on that in this chapter (particularly on Kent's side of things).  
> 5) Reminder that Kent's dad is his stepfather, though that's super technical since the man has pretty much raised Kent. I'm not sure if I'm going to address the fact that his biological father is a douche in later chapters, but I may so (shrugs)  
> 6) Lots of father/son bonding in this one bc their dads weren't around last chapter.  
> 7) I'm not sure this came out the way I wanted it to? Like...it feels like it's jumping around more then flowing smoothly? Am I covering the summer in a way that makes sense or is it just very confusing for everyone? Let me know what you think.  
> 8) this end note has gotten away from me again holy shit. I'm at eight and I haven't even started Bitty's sections yet.  
> 9) ugggggggh Kent's section feels weird and off and I'm just not sure I'm writing him like a nine year old? I worry he's acting too childish. On the other hand, I'm worried Bitty seems to grown up? I mean...he's five???? I'm pretty ok with Jack though. So unless you guys are seeing issues with him, advice and opinions on Kent and Bitty would be appreciated. I worry so much about their dialogue.  
> 10) Was that a batman cross over you saw there??? Y.U.P. It's literally the most off hand thing but I spent ten minutes arguing with myself over whether Jason was going to be bonded to Tim, Kori and Roy, or Kyle bc I'm trash for literally every Jason ship in existence.  
> 11) So, Bitty is a lot more emotional in this section then Jack or Kent were and I hope thats cool with you guys? I don't want it to seem like Jack or Kent don't care as much, it's just that Bitty is a) younger and b) a way more emotional person.


	5. August 2000 - May 2001

The last few weeks before Bitty started kindergarten passed in a steady rhythm. He talked to Jack and Kent for at least a few minutes every day, they wouldn't start school until almost a month after he did but they had already started hockey practice so they didn't always have a whole lot of time, and at least once a week their parents set up a video call for them. He went to the ice arena every Saturday with whichever one of his parents were available because while phone calls made him happy, being on the ice made it feel like Jack and Kent weren't so far away.

Bitty was a tad bit anxious when it came time for school start, Kent was constantly whining about how much he was dreading going back which had Bitty on edge no matter how many times Jack told him that Kent was exaggerating, but once it actually started he found that he liked kindergarten.

He'd always liked being around people and, now that he was handling bonded pairs better, he was able to make all kinds of new friends at kindergarten.

There was a girl, Claire, in his reading group who had a soulmate one year older then Jack and Kent. He loved to read and he'd been the one to teach her, reading stories to her on Saturday afternoons as they sat in the shade of one of the trees in her backyard or in the rocking chair on his front porch. Claire liked retelling the stories he had read to her and Bitty liked listening to them, so sometimes the two of them would huddle together in the shade under the playground and she would used voices and expansive hand gestures to narrate the last tale she'd been told.

Then there was Tyler and Tiffany. They were soulmates, but their parents had wanted them in different classes so that they made friends other then each other. Tiffany didn't seem to care about that, though, because she was constantly sneaking into Bitty and Tyler''s class. Whenever she was asked, be it by a teacher or a classmate, how she kept sneaking out she would just smile and shrug. Bitty thought Tyler probably knew how Tiffany was doing it, but he never gave any indication. Some of the others kids were creeped out by how perfectly in sync they were, born two days apart and with parents who were best friends the two of them had never really been apart for long, but Bitty thought it was funny to listen to them finish each others sentences or sweet when Tiffany broke into their class for the sole purpose of giving Tyler the two oreos that had been in her lunch because he liked them way more then she did.

There were others that he spoke to as well, but it was the three of them who he stuck closest to.

A lot had changed over the past few months, but Bitty liked the changes that had happened and he was happy as the year moved along.

In the beginning of September, Claire's soulmate took all four of them to the library to listen to a reading of Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends. When Bitty told Jack and Kent about it during their next phone call, Jack told them that he owned all of his poetry collections and that they had been his favorite bedtime stories. For the next month their phone calls consisted of Jack reading several pages of the books while Kent and Bitty listened and laughed.

Jack and Kent transitioned from hockey practices to hockey games in October. Bitty's mother bought him a poster board to keep track of how both of their seasons went and Tiffany and Tyler came over to help him decorate it. They covered one half in Penguin colors since it was Jack's favorite team and the other half in Rangers colors since they were Kent's. Bitty's father hung it up on Bitty's bedroom wall for him and whenever one of them had a game Bitty would add a smiley or frowny face sticker to it.

In mid-November, New York got it's first real snow storm. When Kent found out how little it snowed in Georgia, which was to say rarely and very little when it did, he made it his mission to regale Bitty with descriptions of everything he did. There had been snow on the ground in Montreal already, but it was now that Jack started mentioning it more. Kent told stories about how he and his classmates were digging tunnels in the snow banks at recess and Jack talked about making snow angels with his mother on the weekends. Kent whined about always being cold since it was cold outside and cold inside the arena. Jack complained that he wanted to skate on the lake, but his father said it wouldn't be thick enough until December or January. Though it was still settled in the sixties and seventies in Georgia, Bitty started feeling like he was right there with them.

* * *

Bitty was sitting on his Moo-Maw's kitchen counter, normally he would have helped but cooking for Thanksgiving was a huge task and his mother had told him that if he wasn't going to play flag football with the others then he had to stay out of the way, when he heard the clock in the living room go off.

He hopped off the counter, swerving around his aunts and cousins until he reached his mother. She was standing in front of the stove, slowly stirring a pot of green beans.

"Mama," he said, giving her jeans a sharp tug. "It's three."

She glanced up at the clock on the oven. "Oh. Okay, go ahead baby." She shifted her spoon to her other hand before reaching into her pocket to grab her phone. She held the sharp black Nokia out for him to take.

"Thank you," he said dutifully.

He turned to make his way to the sliding door that would lean to the backyard only to be stopped by a turkey baster hitting his chest.

He looked up to find his grandmother was staring down at him with one of her eyebrows raised. "And where do you think you're going, mister?"

"Outside."

"Absolutely not," she said with a shake of her head. "It's a holiday. Whoever you're planning on calling should be spending time with their family just like you should be."

"It's not a holiday in Canada," Bitty said. "And Mama and Elise both said three o'clock was okay."

"I know. I assume you didn't just steal your mothers phone and I'll talk with her about it when I don't have to worry about her overcooking our green beans."

Bitty struggled to find something to say. He knew he was supposed to listen to his Moo-Maw and not argue with her, but Mama and Elise had agreed that Kent, Bitty, and Jack could talk around three since Kent's family would be driving to their second celebration around then. He didn't want to miss the call when he'd already been told he could call.

"Mama," Bitty choked out, feeling like he was going to cry. His fingers tightened around the phone.

His mother must have heard the distress in his tone because her attention snapped completely away from the food. She scooped him up from behind, settling him on one of her hips. He pressed into her immediately, wrapping his arms around her neck and pressing his face to her collar. Her hand settled in his hair, petting softly. "What's wrong, baby? I thought you were going outside to make your call?"

"He's upset because I told him he couldn't," Moo-Maw said. Bitty pressed a little tighter to his mother. Usually he liked being around Moo-Maw because she would teach him all of her secret recipes and let him eat as many candies as he wanted, but right now he just wanted to go home.

"Why would you do that?"

"It's a family holiday, Suzanne. I know I raised you better then to bother people on family holidays."

"Jack and Kent are family. They're his soulmates," his mom answered. "And even if they weren't, neither of them are celebrating right now. Jack's Canadian and Kent's on his way to his step-fathers house. It's why Eric was told to wait until three."

There was a stunned silence before his mother spoke again, "Patty, can you stir the green beans for me? Eric and I are going to step outside for a few minutes."

"Yeah," answered Aunt Patty, sounding a little bit stunned. "Go ahead."

The phone call was only supposed to be a few minutes, but Bitty's mother spoke to Elise and Alicia for a few moments before turning the phone over and Bitty got to spend the next two hours sitting on his grandmother's front porch with Jack and Kent's voices in his ear.

* * *

It was mid-December before Jack's parents let him skate on the lake. Jack loved the feeling of the ice at the arena beneath his skates, but there was something about skating on the lake that was way more freeing. Even though he knew the lake wasn't very big, when he was out on it he felt like he could skate forever and ever without having to stop. Jack spent every second he could out on the ice, asking his father to come out with him the second the man was up for the day and only coming off it long enough to run into the house for his phone calls with Kent and Bitty.

On New Years Eve, all three boys got permission to video chat for the night. They turned on the Time Square ball drop so that they'd be watching the same thing.coaxed their parents into a few rounds of very unorganized uno, each group had their own drawing pile but they were playing off of each others discards, and they sung along with every performance as obnoxiously as they could. Bitty nodded off around ten, having already been up two hours past his bedtime, but Kent and Jack begged and pleaded until Suzanne agreed to keep Bitty's video feed. It wasn't that they particularly wanted to watch Bitty sleep, but they liked being able to see each other and feel like they were together.

Jack's mother was out of town on a job for the first week of February, so Jack's father took him out to buy art supplies. They spent the afternoon sitting at the kitchen counter making Valentines Day cards. Jack had bought a box of generic Alvin and the Chipmunks cards for his classmates, but he wanted to make special ones for Kent and Bitty.

For Kent, he cut out a circle of black construction paper and then covered it in hockey logo stickers. Using a silver sharpie, he wrote in the center, 'Roses are red, the rangers are blue, you have horrible tastes in teams but I still love you.' His father had laughed so hard he'd cried when he saw it. For Bitty, he outlined a cupcake on cream colored paper and then cut it out. He colored on the top half so it had pink frosting and white, heart shaped sprinkles. On the bottom, he wrote, 'Sugar is sweet, but you're sweeter.'

They set them aside so be mailed later since Jack didn't want to risk them reaching their respective owners before Valentines.

* * *

Jack was practically running down the hallway as he left his classroom and made his way to the central office.

"Mère," he said, sliding to a stop in front of her. His mother had never pulled him out of school before, preferring to schedule his appointments until after he got out, and his gut had been tight with worry since his teacher told him she was waiting for him. She had her phone pressed to her ear, but the second she moved it so it was against her shoulder instead, he was rushing out, "Are you okay? Is père okay?"

"We're fine," Alicia assured. She set the hand that wasn't holding her phone on his head. "No one is hurt."

"Then why are you here?"

"I need you to remember what I just told you. No one is hurt. Do you understand, mon petit?" His gut twisted further. He gave a sharp nod, eager to find out what was going on. "Bitty got a little upset when his class started their Valentines party."

"But he's not hurt?" Jack questioned.

Alicia nodded. "He's not hurt, just sad. He was crying pretty hard, so Suzanne asked if he could talk to you and Kent."

"Is that them on the phone?"

"Uh huh." She pulled the phone away from her shoulder. When Jack went to grab it immediately, she held it out of his reach. "Listen to me. I wanted to make sure I was out here when you got down here, so I still have to sign you and explain why I'm taking you home. You can have the the phone while I'm doing that, but you have to sit on that bench right there. You can't go running off okay?"

Jack was a little offended that his mother thought he was going to run off in the first place, at ten years old he knew better and he hadn't done something like that in years, but nodded. He sat down on the bench she had indicated, it faced away from office but his mother would be able to see his head through the glass, and held a hand out.

"Here you go," she said. She placed the cell in his palm and pressed a kiss to his head before opening the door and stepping inside.

Briefly, he heard one of the secretaries greeting her but he was already lifting the phone to his ear.

Kent was speaking quickly, obviously excited about something, "-whole lollipop up his nose! It was amazing!"

"That doesn't sound amazing," Bitty said. His voice was a little scratchy and Jack could hear him sniffling occasionally. "It sounds disgusting."

"That's just because you weren't there," Kent argued. "If you'd been there you would think it was awesome too, Bits."

"I don't think so."

Listening to them speak was enough for the knot in Jack's stomach to start unraveling.

"Hi, guys," Jack said, cutting in before Kent could start arguing. "Happy Valentines Day. Thank you for the cards."

"Jack!" Kent exclaimed. "I would thank you for your card, but it was actually really mean. Was he mean to you too, Bitty?"

"No," Bitty answered. "He called me sweet."  
  
"What the heck?" In the background, Jack could hear Kent's mother reprimanding him for his language. Kent groaned, sounding a little further away but still clear enough for Jack to make out his words. "Mom, come on. Jack's being a jerk. I think it's okay this one time."

While Kent's attention was on his mother, Jack asked quietly, "Are you okay, Bitty?"

There was a quiet sniffle, more predominant then the others but it didn't sound like Bitty was crying again so Jack thought it must've just been because Kent wasn't there to cover up the sound, before Bitty said, "I am now."

"Ok."

As he said it, Jack thought about it was really not okay. Because Bitty might be okay now, but he certainly hadn't been earlier and it sucked that the only thing he could do to make Bitty feel better was talk to him on the phone.

* * *

Kent wanted to do something to keep Bitty from having anymore break downs, because there were lots of things that Kent didn't like but nothing was as bad as Bitty crying. but the whole issue was how far they were from each other so there was nothing Kent could do to help.

It made Kent antsy all through March. He had always been an active child, but it was rare to find him sitting still at all that month. He tapped his fingers on the desk at school, did suicides at hockey practice without complaint, and spent all of his time at home outside playing. He started using the basketball hoop in the driveway more, he would shoot pucks all afternoon if given the chance but he knew he had to rest his shoulder sometimes, and got his father to pull his bike out of the garage even though his mother kept saying it was still too cold out for that.

In April, it started getting him into trouble. He was tapping his pencils against the desks until his teachers got annoyed and having trouble settling down when he came back in from recess. Hockey was coming to an end for the season so most of the kids in the little league Kent played in where starting to slow down, but Kent was playing more aggressively then ever. There wasn't supposed to be any contact, but Kent came close often enough that refs had made threats to ban him for the last few games of the season. His mother got frustrated with cleaning constantly dirty pants and arguing with him to come inside.

Kent finally settled down around Bitty's birthday. Bitty's party wasn't until the next day, so they spent the day of Bitty's birthday talking for longer then usual. Jack and Kent watched as Bitty unwrapped his presents from his parents, the presents Jack and Kent's parents had gotten him, and the presents from the two of them. Jack and Kent's parents had bought each boy a small slice of cake from bakeries near them and the three were allowed to eat at the computer as long as they were careful. Seeing Bitty so happy was enough for Kent. It made him feel like he didn't have to be there to help all the time as long as he was there to help when he could be.

* * *

Elise was sitting in the armchair with a book one of her coworkers had recommended to her when she heard Kent call for her. She slipped a finger inbetween the pages before closing it and giving him her attention.

"Yes?" she said, prompting him to continue.

"I think Jack and Bitty should stay for longer then a week this summer."

Elise gave a soft hum.

It was mid-May which meant Jack and Bitty would be there in only a few short weeks. All of Kent's friends were talking about how they would be starting Middle School once the summer was over, but all Kent wanted to talk about was how he would get to see Jack and Bitty again soon. It had mostly been chatter about what he wanted to do with them, not anything that had Kent looking as serious and thoughtful as he did right now.

"Honey, they can't stay longer just because you want them to."

"It's not just because I want them to," Kent insisted. "It'll be good for Bitty, don't you think? He gets upset because his friends get more time with their soulmates then he gets with us, but maybe if we spent more time together he wouldn't get as upset."

She could understand the logic behind it and she agreed with him. She knew Suzanne would go for it in a heartbeat since she'd been so worried about Bitty. She didn't think Alicia would object either. The house was a little too cramped to spend three months in it, but New York had plenty of summer homes and she thought they could easily split the rent for one.

"Alright," Elise said. When elation blossomed along Kent's face, she corrected, "I'm not saying yes, sweetheart. I'm saying I'll talk to Alicia and Suzanne about it. They have to agree."

"That's fine!" Kent exclaimed. He darted forward and threw his arms around her. "Thank you so much, mama!"

She wrapped one arm around his back.

The past few months had been hard with Kent, but this moment made it all worth it. Nothing made her feel as happy as seeing as her son like this.

"Your welcome kiddo," she said. She pressed a small kiss to his temple before pulling back. "Now off with you. Go play. I'll talk to Alicia and Suzanne before your call tonight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Can I just very quickly give a thank you to everyone whose been reading and responding to these giant ass end notes and giving me tips on the things I ramble about? It honestly helps a lot, so thank you!
> 
> 2) Secondly, if anyone knows anything about the QMJHL or Figure Skating and can hit me up on tumblr to help me out with some stuff, that would be amazing? I can only glean so much from Wikipedia articles. There's still a while until we reach that point for the older two - Jack and Kent don't start playing in the QMJHL until sixteen based on the checkplease timeline which I assume is the earliest they could - but Bitty canonically starts figure skating at seven and I want to make sure I have a grasp on anything he'd be doing.
> 
> 3) I accidentally deleted this whole end note so i'm sure there's going to be stuff I forget to mention this time around
> 
> 4) So OCS! You are kinda gonna need to get used to them because Kent and Bitty are pretty extroverted in my head and their going to have friends. I'm not sure how often or how important they'll be in the story but they will be there. They're also pretty great for showing other bonds. If there's a specific person your interested in though, let me know and i'll try and keep them around. 
> 
> 5) I'm not sure about the transition in Bitty's first section? It's mostly going from August to September that bothers me...I feel like it didn't flow quite right?
> 
> 6) Hopefully Bitty's grandmother didn't come off as too mean? It's just my experience that adults assume first and tend not to listen to children when they try to explain.
> 
> 7) You'll notice that Jack and Kent's sections are both smaller then Bitty's. That because Bitty went through a major life event (starting school) while Jack and Kent didn't. For the years when those things happen to Kent and Jack, theirs will be bigger. Kent's is so small because I wanted to do a feed in for next chapter. 
> 
> 8) if you haven't figured it out, this fic has no plot?? It's just slice-of-life? So if that bothers you, you may want to drop it now.
> 
> 9) I'm not sure what the Canadian school system is like, so we're going with Jack being in a typical American fifth grade classroom?
> 
> 10) I DON'T ACTUALLY SPEAK FRENCH!! Nor do I know the difference between the french spoke in quebec and actual french so if you do and you see something wrong then let me know. 
> 
> 11) Bitty getting emotional over soulmate things will probably continue to be a theme in these early chapters because he's so much more exposed to that stuff then Kent and Jack are (since they both live in big cities) and doesn't have as good control over his emotions. I actually thought it was super interesting to write Jack's perspective on one of Bitty's soulmate-related break downs since I mostly just glossed over it last chapter. 
> 
> 12) Okay actually, i am so unsure about this whole chapter?? Something about it just rubs me the wrong way and I can't figure out what it is? So let me know if you actually enjoyed it or if you hated it and just enjoy the story overall. 
> 
> 13) KENT PARSON IS THE BIGGEST FUCKBOI EVER BUT I LOVE HIM THAT WAY. Everytime I write him I want to cry bc he's such a fledgling fuckboi and i love him. 
> 
> 14) Im suddenly worried im going to exceed the character limit on the end note
> 
> 15) the distance thing is going to be a reoccurring theme throughout this fic. Like allll the way until their through college so if you find it repetitive, I don't really know what to tell you? It won't always be a focus like it is in these chapters (because it's a new thing rn and they aren't used to it yet) but it'll be mentioned and stuff. 
> 
> 16) Ok so I know i just said that this would be a thing but I'm suddenly worried this chapter focuses to much on their seperation?? BUt it's their first year knowing each other - and being apart from each other - and I just....??
> 
> 17) Do you guys hate the scenes form their parents perspective? I'm planning on decreasing them as they get older - you know when the boys are more independent - but if they bother you, I can stop now.
> 
> 18) Fuck seriously guys im so sorry this end note is so long, I just like giving my thoughts on the stuff in the chapter and seeing what you have to say


	6. June - August 2001

Everyone agreed that letting the boys spend the summer together would be best for all three of them. Bitty's issues with the separation were the most obvious, but both Kent and Jack were struggling with it as well, so the few weeks between Kent's suggestion and their meet up were spent ironing out last minute details. 

 

They sorted out their schedules pretty quickly. Elise and Remy both worked and neither of them could take such a long time off, but it wasn't much of a problem since everyone had agreed to travel to New York once again. Alicia's jobs were a bit unpredictable so she'd be in and out of the house, and Coach Bittle would be leaving a few weeks before Suzanne and Bitty for camp and a few pre-school football practices. Bob was retired and Suzanne stayed at home with Bitty so they would always have at least two people in the house to watch the boys.

 

Once they made sure they had everything handled, Elise set about trying to find a house that would work for them. 

 

In the end, she found a nice summer home that wasn't far from her or her husband's work but had plenty around it for the others to enjoy since they would be on vacation. There were three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a redone basement. After some discussion, they agreed that Elise and Remy would take the bedroom on the main floor so that they didn't need to worry about waking the others up when they were getting ready for work. Alicia and Bob and Suzanne and Coach Bittle took the two bedrooms on the second floor. The boys hadn't slept apart the first time they were with each other and their parents doubted they'd want to this time, so they planned on putting them in the basement together. 

 

Time passed quickly once all the arrangements were made and before they knew it, they were all packing up and heading off to the summer home. 

* * *

"Kent."

 

At the sound of his name, Kent looked away from his gameboy. 

 

He was sitting cross legged on the bed in the basement of the summer home. He had wanted to wait outside for Bitty and Jack, but after only a few minutes his father had come out and let him know they would be a while so he'd retreated back inside. 

 

Now, his father was standing at the top of the stairs. He was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest and a small smile on his face. "There's some people here to see you."

 

As he finished speaking, Jack and Bitty poked their faces into the doorway. Bitty was grinning widely, dark eyes seeming to sparkle and a wide grin on his face. Jack had a small, nervous smile on his lips and his fingers wrapped around the doorway. 

 

"Jack! Bitty!" Kent exclaimed. He tossed his gameboy onto the bed behind him and jumped to his feet. 

 

"No running down stairs," Remy warned as Jack and Bitty squeezed past him to hurry towards Kent. 

 

Obediently, they slowed their pace. 

 

Kent ran over to the stairs and waited eagerly at the bottom. He bounced from foot-to-foot and made circular 'hurry up' motions with his hands. 

 

As soon as both boys had their feet on the floor, Kent launched himself at them. 

 

Bitty got sandwiched between Jack and Kent, wrapping his arms around Kent's waist and pressing his face to Kent's chest. Jack was plastered to Bitty's back, reaching across him to get his arms around Kent as well. Kent struggled to get his arms around them both, but with a little bit of wiggling he managed it. The hug was a little awkward, but none of them really cared after being apart for so long. 

 

The quiet moment was broken by sniffles. 

 

Kent and Jack exchanged surprised looks over the top of Bitty's head. 

 

Before either of them could attempt to comfort him, Bitty spoke. His face was still pressed against Kent so his voice came out muffled, but understandable. "S-Sorry. I'm just really really h-happy to see you guys again."

 

Kent frowned a little bit. He knew that some people cried when they were really happy, but he didn't really like being the reason Bitty cried. Even if they were happy tears. 

 

He cast another glance at Jack, hoping Jack would know how to handle this. 

 

Much to his dismay, Jack looked completely panicked. 

 

Kent kinda wanted to sigh that. He knew Jack was bad with this kind of stuff, but jeesh. 

 

Kent had just started gathering the words he wanted to say, preparing to tell Bitty about how his father said that he should never apologize for crying because it's okay to cry sometimes, when an amused voice floated down from the stairway. "Jack, I thought you were going to carry your suitcase inside since you're a big kid now."

 

Jack's face flushed bright red. He pulled away from Bitty and Kent, turning around to look up the stairs again. His voice was firm as he said, "I am a big kid, dad."

 

"Oh yeah? Then how come your suitcase is still sitting in the backseat of the car?"

 

Kent looked up to see who Jack was talking to and felt a pang of excitement when he saw Bob Zimmermann standing at the top of the stairs. He had known who Jack's dad was, but he'd never actually met him. 

 

Jack glanced away from his dad, looking over his shoulder at Kent and Bitty, and said, "I'll be right back!"

 

He didn't wait for a response before darting up the stairs. His dad followed after him, calling out for him to be careful not to bump into anyone else. 

 

Feeling awed and a little lost, Kent rested his chin on Bitty's head. He said, his voice soft and filled with all of his amazement, "I can't believe I just met Bad Bob Zimmermann."

 

Bitty sniffled a bit before asking, "Who?"

* * *

They established a routine fairly quickly into their first month in the house.

 

Suzanne cooked meals with Bitty's help, waving off anyone who offered to help and threatening to slap them with a spatula if they didn't back off, and Jack and Kent did the dishes under Alicia's supervision. Alicia and Bob took care of most of the cleaning with help from the two older boys. Bitty didn't have to help, he didn't do chores at his house the way Jack and Kent did, but most of the time he could be seen dancing with a broom while he helping Kent sweep or chattering away as he helped Jack wipe down a counter. 

 

Elise and Remy both tried apologizing multiple times for not helping out around the house, but they were dismissed each time. They all understood that the two of them were busy with their jobs. 

 

The boys usually spent the few hours between breakfast and lunch around the house. Some days they would sit at the island and listen to music while coloring or playing with play-dough. Some days they settled on the couch to play video games since Kent had brought his Dreamcast and Jack had brought his Nintendo 64. Bitty wasn't allowed to play Marvel vs Capcom, but he didn't have any problem with just watching as Kent and Jack played. When Bitty did want to play, they would Mario Party 3 or Diddy Kong Racing. Some days, when they were tired and didn't feel like doing much of anything in the morning, they would just flop down onto the cold tiles and lay there while talking about whatever popped into their heads. 

 

After lunch, one of their parents would take them out. Alicia took them hiking through the woods around the house one day, taking them up to a clearing with a worn out gazebo. She'd sat in the shade while the boys ran around, playing tag and Simon Says and red light, green light until they were worn out. Coach Bittle found a track and took them all go-karting. On their days off, Elise and Remy would take the three of them out to the lake nearby. Sometimes they just swam and played in the sand, but sometimes they would go kayaking or tubing. Suzanne went into town for groceries and took them with her so they could go to a local gym filled with rock climbing walls and obstacle courses. Once or twice a week, Bob would drive them out to the nearest ice rink and once they had finished skating they would go to the arcade or see a movie. 

 

On the weekends, when Elise and Remy were home after work or brought the boys back from the lake, all of them would sit out on the lawn. They would play flag football, have water balloon fights, and spray paint twister boards onto the grass. Sometimes their parents joined in, Bob was tragically confused by football and Elise always took at least three people down with her when she fell during twister, but sometimes they would just sit on the porch and watch as the boys played. When the sun went down, they would light a bonfire to roast s’mores and light the sky up with fireworks. 

* * *

Bitty sat on the railing on the back porch. One of his hands was settled on the metal while his other one held a popsicle stick. His legs hung below him, swinging freely.

 

It was a warm Saturday evening in July. Elise, Remy, Coach Bittle, Alicia, Kent, and Jack were playing soccer in the lawn. Elise and Remy were on Jack's team with Alicia and Coach Bittle on Kent's. The back door was open and he could heard his mother singing along with the radio as she mixed a fresh pitcher of lemonade. 

 

"Hey, Bits." At the sound of his name, Bitty bent backwards so he could see the speaker. Bob was standing behind him, holding a watermelon popsicle identical to the one in Bitty's hand and smiling at him. 

 

"Hi, Mr. Bob," Bitty greeted. The name was a compromise of theirs that they'd come up with early in the summer. Bitty's southern manners kept him from addressing Bob by just his first name, but Bob insisted that Mr. Zimmermann was too formal for someone who was both six and his son's soulmate. 

 

He stepped around Bitty so he could lean against the railing next to him. Bitty used his grip on the rail to pull himself back up. They sat in silence for a few minutes, both of them eating their popsicles and watching as Elise swept Kent up in her arm so that Jack could snag the ball.

 

"You didn't want to play with everyone?" Bob asked. 

 

"Nope," Bitty said, putting a pop on the p. "And the teams would have been uneven if I did."

 

He said, "Someone would have dropped out so you could play with them."

 

Bitty gave a tiny shrug. "I didn't want to play though."

 

"No?"

 

"Nope." 

 

"Don't you want to spend time with Jack and Kent?"

 

"I do," Bitty said. He kicked his legs out, his heels smacking softly against the bars under him. "But sometimes they do things that I don't like and I do things that they don't like. Like, I don't like playing sports as much as Kent does and Jack always looks at my pies like thinks they're going to kill him, but that's okay because I like cheering for Kent and Jack likes my pies even if he likes to eat healthy. We don't have to be doing the same stuff as long as we support each other."

 

Bob turned his head, staring Bitty in shock for several beats. Then he let out a loud, belly deep laugh. He reached out and ruffled Bitty's hair, "You're pretty smart, kid. Make sure you use that brain of yours to keep those two in line, alright?"

* * *

Things started to slow down as they neared the end of the summer.

 

They were still taking advantage of the area surrounding the summer house and doing a ton of things they wouldn't be able to do once they got home, but not as frequently as they were before. Part of it was because Coach Bittle had left in middle of July for Football Camp and Alicia was running around the country on a press tour for a movie she had coming out in August. Part of it was that as much as the boys loved running around together, they were also aware that they didn't have much more time together and were starting to close ranks. 

 

Before Kent and Jack would do their chores at the same time so that they could play together once they were done, now they were helping each other. If it was Kent's turn to mop the kitchen floor, then Jack and Bitty were sitting on the counter, so that they wouldn't accidentally walk on something he'd already done, and talking to him. If it was Jack's turn to take the trash out, then Kent and Bitty followed him all the way to the bin outside. 

 

Before when Elise and Remy took them to the beach, the boys didn't mind splitting up. Kent would swim with Remy while Jack and Bitty built sand castles with Elise or Bitty would sit on the deck of the boat and read a book with Elise while Kent and Jack fished. Now, Kent would hold hands with Jack and Bitty while jumping over tiny waves instead of venturing out to swim. Now, the three of them walked down the shore with Jack holding a bucket for Bitty and Kent to put the seashells they found in. 

 

In the beginning of the summer, when they went to sleep they were a pile of limbs strewn across the bed. Sometimes Kent was curled up at the end of the bed and Jack squeezed on the edge because Bitty had spread out in the middle, sometimes Kent ended up flopped stomach down across Bitty and Jack, sometimes Jack hang off way off the bed while Bitty used his thighs as a pillow and Kent his stomach. 

 

Now, they slept packed together in the center of the bed. Jack slept in the center. Kent slept on his left and his head almost always ended up on Jack's shoulder by the time they woke up. Bitty would sleep Jack's right and end up half on top of Jack so that his toes or fingers were brushing against Kent. 

* * *

Jack was laying on the grass in the backyard. His palms rested on his stomach and his bare feet were flat against the ground so his knees were in the air. His eyes were closed, but he knew where Kent and Bitty were sitting because they were both touching him.

 

Kent was sitting up with his legs crossed. Every time he shifted, one of his knees bumped gently against the top of Jack's head. Bitty was lying down on his stomach. His forearm was pressing gently against Jack's shoulder. 

 

Bitty was humming softly while Kent plucked grass from the ground and sprinkled it over Jack's forehead. Every now and then, Jack would bat half-heartedly at Kent's hand, but he didn't really mind it all that much. 

 

It was a slow, sleepy kind of afternoon and they hadn't really done much other then lay there since they went outside. 

 

Jack felt happy. Floaty and content. 

 

Without really thinking about it, he opened his mouth and said, "We should live in Canada."

 

There was a beat before Kent said, sounding confused, "What?"

 

"When we're older!" Jack pushed himself up and turned so he was on his stomach like Bitty. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at them. "Like, we can't live in the same place right now because we're kids! But when we're older, we should live in Canada!"

 

"Wouldn't it make more sense to live in America?" Bitty asked. "'Cause Kent and I are both from here."

 

"Most of the NHL teams are from America," Kent pointed out. 

 

Jack let out a heavy sigh. "But Canada is better."

 

"Not true," Kent argued with a shake of his head. 

 

"Why don't we just live in Canada during the summer?" Bitty said, interrupting before Jack could say something to Kent. "Like we're doing now?"

 

"But you guys don't have real winters!" Jack objected. "We need a real winter for me to skate on a pond!"

 

"Plenty of places in America have cold winters," Kent declared. "Like New York! Or Rhode Island! I think even the summers in Nevada are really cold if you live in the mountains!"

 

Jack pouted for a moment before relenting. "Okay. We can live in America during hockey season, but only if Kent and I don't get drafted by the Canadiens."

 

Kent wrinkled his nose. "Gross. I hope the Rangers draft us instead."

 

"Noooooooooooooo," Jack whined. "Anyone but the Rangers!"

 

Kent ripped a whole fist full of grass from the ground and threw it in Jack’s face. 

 

Jack just threw his head back, laughing loud and bright. 

  
The end of the summer was only days away, but Jack found it easy to be happy when he knew that someday they wouldn’t have to leave each other at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Firstly and most importantly, I want to thank RachelMantegna for volunteering her knowledge of the Q (and boy does she have a lot of it) and also for BETAING this fic because thats awesome. Also thank you to eyeballlickinggecko for volunteering her figure skating knowledge!
> 
> 2) Kent's father is finally named in this!!! I named him Remy!! Plus Three points to anyone who knows who I'm referencing!
> 
> 3) Kent is my precious problem child. I pretty much consistently struggle with his sections.
> 
> 4) The real question in this chapter is wtf their parents do all day? Like I would crazy just sitting around a summer home so wtf are Bob, Coach, Suzanne, and Alicia doing when they aren't with their kids?
> 
> 5) Tech timeline for things mentioned in this fic (just to assure you I was not off here): Dreamcast came out in 1999 and the Nintendo 64 in 1996. Neither of them were the most recent consoles at the time, but I think it's more realistic to let your children play with and transport older systems then a Playstation 2 you've only have for a year. Game Boy advances came out in March 2001, but considering it's summer 2001 in this chapter, I gave Kent a Game Boy Light instead. I checked to make sure all the games mentioned were actually out, but I'm not gonna put all that here. 
> 
> 6) Bitty's parents do a thing that my parents did that never made sense to me. That being that I couldn't PLAY violent video games, but I was allowed to watch other people play them? Like my dad would play Grand Theft Auto with me and my younger sister next to him, but I wasn't allowed to actually touch the controller. 
> 
> 7) For those of you who did play Marvel vs. Capcom 2, who were your characters? I didn't mention it in here but I think Jack would have gone for Iceman or Storm and Kent probably liked Wolverine or Sabretooth.
> 
> 8) Why do I refer to Bitty's dad as "Coach Bittle" instead of giving him a name? Mostly because it's honestly hilarious to me.
> 
> 9) If anyone is wondering Bob is 44 in this fic (for sure. We know his birthday and I did some math) and Alicia is around there as well. They're the oldest of the adults. Kent's parents are the youngest. Seeing as I mentioned Elise had Kent in college, I'm going to go with her being 24-25 when he was born which would put her at 34-35 not. I'm going to put Remy as a little younger then her, so let's go with 32 for him? Bitty's parents are around 38/39. 
> 
> 10) I feel like this chapter has a lot of Jack and Kent doing things together while Bitty just watches and I hope that doesn't come off like their leaving him out? It's just that their older and allowed to do things that Bitty can't, so they find ways to make things work.  
> 11) Cut off for the fifth section seems odd? but ultimately I don't hate it and I didn't really know what else to say, so I left it that way. 
> 
> 12) I thought it was really clever that when Kent was talking about places they could live, he mentioned both Rhode Island and Nevada where he and Jack will end up playing. I wonder if any of you noticed that though?
> 
> 13) Jack and Kent would NEVER have been drafted to the same team (if Jack had been drafted the same year, they would have gone 1&2 so they would only end up together if someone was stupid enough to trade one of them) but I think that at ten years old they would definitely dream of playing NHL hockey together. 
> 
> 14) I think you all get this, but I really dont have anything against the Rangers? I don't even know what the rangers were like in 2001. It's just Kent and Jack being silly boys who love their favs. 
> 
> 15) Jack has loyalty issues with hockey. Does he cheer for the Penguins who his father played for?? Or the Canadiens who are from the same place as him?? I bet the poor boy doesnt know what to do when they play each other.


	7. September 2001 - May 2002

Jack hated September.

 

September was the month before October which meant hockey season was so close but now quite there yet. It wasn't like he wasn't playing hockey at all then since he had practices. It was just that practices were not the same as games and Jack would much rather play hockey than practice hockey. September was also coming to mean his first month without Bitty and Kent. Their parents had decided that since the summer house had worked out so well, they would continue doing it each summer, provided nothing extreme came up. This meant that even though they left the house in early August so Bitty could get back in time for the start of school which in turn meant that for the next few months, September would be the first month he'd go without seeing his soulmates.

 

And September meant the beginning of school and his mother's constant encouragements to make more friends.

 

Jack tried, really he did, but every time he would end up feeling awkward and out of place. He tried talking to the other boys on his team, but they would get so loud that Jack's quiet contributions went ignored until he finally stopped trying. He tried talking to the boys in his classes, but they wanted to play football during lunch while Jack wanted to work on his passes or talk about the episode of Power Rangers that had come on while Jack was at hockey practice. It was easier with the girls in his class, finding that being quieter than them didn't make him feel like he wasn't acting the way he should or that he was doing something wrong by not liking the same things as them, but his gut churned at the idea of joining their conversations without them inviting him and it left him feeling like he'd missed two thirds of a discussion.

 

September just generally sucked and Jack really didn't understand why it had to exist. So he buried himself in homework and hockey practices and phone calls with Kent and Bitty until the month had passed.

 

October brought the beginning of the hockey season and it put Jack in a much better mood.

 

His mother didn't quite stop asking him about his friends. He delivered a few tidbits of second hand information, Ashley's mother really was taking her to get her nails done but she'd been talking to Trisha about it not Jack, and half truths, Troy's dad really had invited the team to ice cream next week but Jack didn't really need to think about the invitation because Troy was one of the boys who always seemed to look at Jack with jealousy in his eyes. Eventually, she stopped asking so frequently. He was better adjusted to Bitty and Kent's absence, remembering more often that he couldn't just turn his head to find them when a question he wanted to ask or a story he wanted to tell popped into his head. And more importantly than anything, when he got on the ice there was a goalie in the net and a team of strangers that he wasn't going to have to play nice with after the game.

 

***

When Bob walked into the kitchen to find Jack sitting at the island with his chin against the marble table top and a disgruntled expression on his face, he quirked an eyebrow and asked, "What's got you so down, kiddo? Weren't you on the phone with Kent and Bits?"

 

"Yeah," Jack answered. He had been staring off at the space in front of him, but now he looked over at Bob. "I told Kent how I was gonna dress up as Uncle Mario for Halloween and he said that since Uncle Mario is a hockey player and I'm a hockey player it doesn't count as a costume."

 

"Ah..." Bob opened the fridge and grabbed two water bottles before shutting it. He set both bottles on the counter, pushing one closer to Jack, before leaning on the counter opposite Jack. "And what did Bitty say?"

 

"Bitty said that what Kent said made sense, but that I should dress however I want for Halloween because it's no fun if you're not dressed up the way you want to be."

 

Bob felt his lips turned up a little bit. It was moments like this when he understood so clearly why Jack had both Kent and Bitty as his soulmates. Even as young as they were, the effect the two of them would have on Jack in the long run was obvious. Kent would push Jack to do new things, to leave his box, but Bitty would make sure Jack did it on his terms instead of Kent's.

 

"And?" Bob asked. "What did you decide?"

 

Jack furrowed his eyebrows and pressed his lips together, humming in thought. After a moment, he said, "I'm a hockey player for Halloween every year. It might be fun to be something else for once."

 

"What do you wanna be then?" Bob questioned.

 

Jack went quiet again, looking down at the counter as he thought about it. The look of concentration on his face made Bob want to laugh. His son took everything much too seriously. After a couple of seconds, Jack said, "Maybe a pirate? Or a samurai?"

 

"Those sound fun," Bob agreed. "We can go to the store if you want. You can look at the costumes and see which one you like more."

 

"Right now?"

 

Bob glanced down at the watch on his wrist. Three-thirty on a Wednesday. Jack had practice at five, but that was an hour and a half away. He asked, "You got your homework done?"

 

"Didn't have any."

 

"Go put your shoes on and grab your gear. We'll just go straight to the rink once you pick something out."

***

Jack spent November playing hockey, arguing with Kent, and listening to Bitty talk about pie recipes. Kent seemed to be arguing with Jack about when Thanksgiving really was more for the sake of riling Jack up then because he actually cared if Thanksgiving was in October or November, but knowing that didn't stop Jack from getting suckered into the argument every time.

 

The argument popped up almost every time they talked about the approaching American holiday which was pretty frequently because Bitty's mother had agreed to let Bitty make the pie for his family's celebration and he wanted to make sure he picked out the perfect recipe. Kent kept insisting that it had to be pumpkin because it was Thanksgiving, but Bitty and his mom had made a maple sugar crusted apple pie over the summer and Jack thought Bitty should make that again since it was pretty much the best thing he'd ever tasted.

 

Bitty ended up making some kind of chocolate mousse pie with oreo crust that had Kent complaining that he was hungry when he explained it and Jack feeling like he needed to eat celery sticks.

* * *

Almost as soon as he'd started looking, Kent found the perfect Christmas present for Bitty. He'd been running errands with his mom on a Saturday afternoon when he spotted the cookbook in the window of a bookshop. It was filled with healthy dessert recipes. When he asked if he could go in and get it, his mother had seemed a bit skeptical about it. It made Kent want to sigh at her. Bitty liked making pies, but he always looked a bit sad when Jack refused to eat something because it had too much sugar in it. This way Bitty could make something Jack would like and both of them would be happy.

 

Kent spent the rest of December struggling to find something to get Jack for Christmas. In the end, he found a coloring book full of pirates and a couple of books about the revolutionary war that didn't look too boring. He knew pirates were one of Jack's history things, he was spouting facts and telling stories about Captains male and female alike constantly, and Kent figured he wouldn't mind learning about the Revolution since he figured Canadian schools probably didn't teach it very thoroughly.

 

When Christmas afternoon came around, they unwrapped their presents from each other on a video call. The way Jack and Bitty lit up, Bitty instantly brightening and Jack's whole face being taken over with delighted curiosity, made Kent sit a little straighter as satisfaction pounded through him.

 

***

"Kent." At the sound of his name, Kent looked up to see his father poking his head into his doorway. His parents were having a New Years party out in the living room with their coworkers. Usually when his parents had (or went to) a party Kent would join them, playing with the younger kids while their parents talked or going outside with the older kids to play flashlight tag, but New Years was one of the few days when none of their parents cared if Kent, Jack, and Bitty spent all day in front of their computers. This meant that when he'd asked they'd given him permission to take the laptop to his room instead of using the desktop out in the living room. "It's almost twelve thirty, bud. Time to say goodbye."

 

"What? No!" Kent objected. It was just him and Jack since Bitty had fallen asleep somewhere around ten and his mother had turned his screen off when she came to put him in bed just after midnight, wishing them both a happy New Year as she scooped him from his seat. They'd mellowed out since the ball had dropped, both of them cheering as they watched the ceremonies on their respective TVs, but Kent didn't want to stop and go to sleep. "Jack and I are still talking."

 

"Twelve thirty," his father repeated.

 

"Can't we stay up just a little longer?" Kent requested. "Just thirty more minutes? You still have friends over."

 

His father pressed his lips together. "You won't put up a fight at one?"

 

"No!" Kent agreed. "I promise!"

 

He was quiet for a moment before sighing. He crossed the room and sat down on Kent's bed, bending so he could see the computer screen. "Jack, is your mom or dad around? I want to make sure it's okay with them if you boys stay up a little longer."

 

"Yeah!" Jack said. He turned his head, talking to someone off screen, "Aunt Nathalie, can you get Maman? Kent's dad wants to make sure it's okay for me to stay up a little later."

 

There was a moment before Alicia appeared on the screen, leaning over the top of the computer chair Jack was sitting in and smiling. "Hi Remy, Kent. Happy New Years."

 

"Happy New Year," Kent answered.

 

His father gave a smile of his own. "Happy New Year, Alicia. Look, Kent wants to stay up a little bit longer. I know we said twelve thirty, but would it be alright for them to talk for another thirty minutes?"

 

As Alicia and his father talked, Kent leaned over to rest his head on his father's shoulder. He could see Jack on the screen, head tilted backwards so he was looking up at his mom as she spoke.

 

A smile stretched across Kent's lips. There was nothing better than ringing in the New Year with Jack and Bitty, even if Bitty didn't quite make it to midnight.

*****

Most of his teammates went to a different school than him; the ice rink sat between three school districts and there were a few boys who went to Middle Schools a little further away, and once hockey season finished they wouldn't get to see much of each other. Kent knew a lot of them hung out over summer vacation, but he would be with Bitty and Jack while they were riding bikes around town so Kent started spending more time out of the house and with his teammates as January chugged on.

 

He went out for pizza with Charlie and Kurt - a d-men pair from Kent's team who had a soulbond and practically lived with each other - after one of their games and made it into the door just as the phone started ringing with Bitty and Jack's phone call. His mother had scolded him afterwards, telling him to make sure he came home earlier. Hayden, one of the few boys on the team who did go to school with Kent, came over after school so they could work on their science project before practice, and Kent spent an hour holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder with hands covered in paste from their paper mache replica of Jupiter and Hayden laughing next to him. The whole team had a snowball fight after winning one of their games and Kent spoke to Jack and Bitty while he was in the bathtub trying to chase the cold away from his skin.

 

February passed in a rush of the same - juggling hockey, school, his friends, and his regular phone calls with Jack and Bitty - and though it was busy and sometimes he struggled to make it all fit, he was happy.

* * *

"Bitty, what happened to your face?" Jack questioned, voice tense and worried, as soon as Bitty picked up the video call.

 

At the same time, Kent let out a surprised, "Holy crap, Bits. Are you okay?"

 

"I'm fine," Bitty insisted. He resisted the urge to reach up to feel at the band-aids on his face. There was a butterfly bandage up above his left eye and a larger one covering his chin. There were a few other scratches and nicks on his face that his mother had rubbed cream on but deemed small enough that they didn't need coverage.

 

"You look like someone beat you up," Kent said. "And you clearly lost the fight."

 

"Did someone hit you?" Jack said, eyes going a bit wide and panicky. "Kent, why aren't you more concerned about this!"

 

"I didn't get in a fight!" Bitty said, giving a firm shake of his head before Kent could answer Jack's question. "It was an accident!"

 

"I can't believe you thought I was being serious about the fight thing," Kent declared. He raised an eyebrow. "Jack, come on. This is Bits we're talking about."

 

"It doesn't really matter!" Bitty said, cutting them off again. "Jason, one of the boys who lives in the house behind mine, does acrobatics and he said he would show me how to do flips like he can! Dick, his big brother, tried telling us it was a bad idea but we did it anyway and I landed on my face instead of my feet."

 

"Ow," Kent said with a wince. "Are you okay?"

 

"Yup!" Bitty could see Jack didn't quite believe him so he explained, "Jason's grandpa, Alfred, said that I didn't need any stitches, but some of the cuts are pretty big so Mama wants me to wear the band-aids just to make they don't get infected. And we're not allowed to do anymore tricks without their daddy or Mama watching us."

 

There was a moment before Jack asked, "You're really okay?"

 

Bitty nodded again. "Uh huh! It was just a little fall. No worse than you getting pushed around at practice."

 

Jack opened his mouth as if he was going to argue. It was Kent who cut him off this time, "Oh speaking of! You will never guess what I did in my game last night!"

 

Jack looked a little disgruntled, but didn't say anything else as Kent started describing the game the previous night.

 

Bitty pulled his feet up onto the chair with him and settled his chin on his knees.

 

He really did feel okay, he'd fallen a few hours ago and his face didn't really hurt anymore, but that didn't mean that seeing Kent and Jack didn't make him feel even better.

***

It hadn't gotten particularly cold in Georgia, but March faded into April the temperature got a little warmer. Bitty's spring jacket got tossed into the back of the closet and he started spending more of his time outside. He spent his days running around outside with his friends. He, Jason, and Dick built castles that stretched the entity of the sandbox. Clara came over sometimes and the two of them played tag until they were so sweaty and hot they had no choice but to go inside for lemonade. Tyler and Tiffany came over together to play hide-and-seek which always turned into a disaster because they always either hid together or found each other within moments of the game starting. When the day cooled down, Bitty would run around the front lawn trying to catch fireflies in his hands or sit on on the front porch talking to Kent and Jack as his mother and father sat behind him talking softly.

 

May entered with Bitty's birthday. They had a giant party at the ice rink. Tyler and Tiffany learned to skate with their hands clasped like they did everything else. Bitty may have felt jealous if it weren't for the memory of Jack holding his hands while he taught Bitty and the sound of Kent's voice as he skated around them. Bitty spoke to Jack and Kent after all of his friends had gone home, smiling so widely his cheeks hurt as they sung happy birthday to him.

 

The rest of the month passed in a flurry as they got ready to go away for the summer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) You'll notice that Bitty starts school way before Kent and Jack. It's not because of his age. In case you guys didn't know, Georgia starts school in August because they hate children or something (or at least thats what everything I looked up said).
> 
> 2) So here's the thing...this is a soulmate fic but it's also very slice-of-life? I mean there's no mystical element to the fact that their soulmates and it actually doesn't come up all that much (other than referring to each other that way). Does that bother you guys? Would you rather there be some kind of connection or do you like that though it had that element, they’re still just normal people?
> 
> 3) I'm trying to ease into Jack's anxiety issues and the way he would have hidden it (considering what happened with the drugs I assume he was fairly good at that bit). For me, my way of hiding my social anxiety at Jack's age was too make up lies or rely things I'd heard second hand until my mother stopped asking me if I'd made any new friends. 
> 
> 4) Experimenting a little bit with putting the scenes in different places so that we aren't always doing scenes in November, February, and May. Let me know if you hate it/it's working for you.
> 
> 5) I'm going to stop asking if you find these chapters boring because well...the point is that the boys are just growing up together at this point? At six, eleven, and eleven their life is not always exciting. It's just well...life? And moments that happen in it, not necessarily the exciting ones. Their a bit fillery right now, but as they grow up I do have a lot of stuff planned. 
> 
> 6) in the same way that I introduced some of Bitty's friends in the last chapter, this one introduces Kent's. Gonna play with them more, but they don't really get more than a mention in this chapter. This chapter also highlights a huge difference between Kent and Jack which makes me really sad and that's that Jack's teammates shun his talent while Kent's embrace it. 
> 
> 7) I was really struggling with how to start Bitty's section and then I remembered that I put the BatFam living right behind him and young Dick and Jason absolutely hurt Bitty like all the time on accident bc they’re young and stupid (i mean, they’re pretty stupid when they’re older too sooo)
> 
> 8) Bitty’s whole section is really lacking in this chapter? Sorry about that.


	8. June 2002 - August 2002

Bitty sat in the car swinging his legs under him and humming along to the Destiny's Child song playing on the radio.

He could hear his parents talking quietly in the front, but all of his attention was focused on staring out the window and watching the scenery passing by. Though he wasn't sure how much longer it would be until they got to the summer house, he was starting to recognize the surroundings and he wanted to make sure he saw the house as soon as they got there.

The trees had started thinning out so Bitty knew they were getting close, but they made another left turn and suddenly Bitty could see house. Alicia and Elise were standing on the porch with their hands blocking the sun from their eyes as they peered out giant tree in the front yard. Remy and Bob were standing at the bottom of the tree with their heads tilted up. Bob had a wide, amused grin on his face while Remy just looked confused.

Bitty wondered what Kent and Jack were doing. If everyone else was outside, why weren't they?

As the car turned into the driveway, all four of the other adults turned to look at them.

"Sorry we're late," Bitty's mother called out as the car parked. Bitty waited until his father took the keys out of the ignition to press the release on his seatbelt. He got it undone right as his mother opened his door for him. "Where are the boys?"

Before anyone could answer, Kent called out, "Bitty! Hey!"

Bitty looked around for a minute before realizing that it had come from above him. He looked up to find that Kent was standing high up in the tree. His lips were split in a wide grin as he waved down at Bitty. Jack was sitting in a V a little below Kent, looking significantly more nervous then Kent did.

"Hi," Bitty said, lifting his hand to wave at them.

Bitty heard his father's deep chuckle behind him. "What are you boys doing up there?"

"Kent thought we'd be able to see you from further away if we were up here," Jack said.

"Did it work?" Bitty questioned.

Kent gave a sharp nod, his grin spreading even wider. "Yeah! We saw you ages ago!"

"They would have climbed down to see you," Bob said, laughter in his voice, "but they can't figure out how to get back down."

"I'm still not even sure how they got up," Remy said. "There's no foot holds on that tree."

"I totally know how to get down!" Kent objected. He gripped one of the branches near him and pulled a bit. "We just have to jump! Jack is being a giant baby though. He's all-" He pitched his voice high and whiny, sounding absolutely nothing like Jack, "We could break something! A minor fraction could take six weeks to heal and anything worse could take all summer!"

"We could!" Jack insisted, craning his head backwards so he could scowl up at Kent. "You can't play hockey with a broken bone, Kent!"

Bitty put his hand over his mouth, giggling as Jack and Kent started arguing. They both glanced at him, but the way Jack started to smile a bit and Kent started to egg Jack on more made it clear that at least half of the current argument was for his sake.

He wandered over to the space where Remy and Bob were standing, slotting himself between the two of them. Remy glanced down at him and gave him a small fond smile.

"Hey Bits," Bob greeted. "Do me a favor, alright?"

Bitty looked at him, he'd been subdued in the car as he tried to deal with being so close but so far from his soulmates but now there was a wide gap-toothed smile on his face. "What is it?"

"Don't be like Jack. Tell Kent no when he tries dragging you into doing something stupid."

"Alright," Bitty agreed, ignoring the twin objections that Jack and Kent shouted down at them. "I won't do anything stupid no matter how many times Jack and Kent tell me it's not."

Bob threw his head back and laughed. He set his hand on Bitty's head, ruffling his hair. "You've got the right idea, Bits."

* * *

Jack surfaced above the water. As he was reaching up to wipe water from his eyes, he heard the kicking of feet behind him.

He was about to turn around when he felt two bodies launch themselves at him.

He floundered for a moment, surprised enough that he forgot he had to keep kicking to stay swimming and bobbing under the sudden weight, before he managed to stabilize himself. He could feel two sets of arms wrapped around his neck, one on his left and one on his right, and when he opened his eyes he was unsurprised to see that his attackers were Kent and Bitty.

"Hi," he greeted.

"Hi," Bitty said, smiling sweetly. He could swim okay, but since they were in the lake instead of a pool Remy and Elise had made him put on arm floaties. Jack could feel the rubber against his shoulders where Bitty was holding onto him. When Jack had gotten them balanced, he had shifted so he could wrap his legs around Jack's waist instead of floating out.

"Why are you over here?" Kent complained. He had his chin resting on Jack's shoulder, wet blonde hair plastered to his head and the sun hitting the places were water were rolling down his face and making his skin glisten. Though his arms were wrapped around Jack's neck the same as Bitty's, he hadn't chosen to latch himself onto him. Instead, he kicked his legs lazily behind him. "Don't you wanna swim with us?"

"I do," Jack assured. "But you guys were playing Marco Polo with your dad and I didn't really want to."

He looked over his shoulder to see that Remy had pulled himself out of the water and was standing on the deck of the boat they were renting. Elise was sitting in a folding chair with a glass of coke in her hand, laughing and trying to swat him away as he let his hair drip on her stomach. Even though they were laughing, it was clear that both of them had one eye on the three boys in the water just incase something happened.

"We aren't anymore," Kent said. "Swim with us."

Jack could feel himself starting to burn in the places where the sun was hitting him, Kent and Bitty both had fairer complexions yet it was Jack who had to slather himself in sunscreen every summer, but he liked having Kent and Bitty close to him and he didn't really want to go get out to sit in the shade on the boat without them.

"Okay," he agreed. "But we can't go too far. Just in case something happens to Bitty's floaties."

Kent let out a loud whoop. He dropped his arms from around Jack, doing a back flip. Instead of facing them, Kent twisted so he could start swimming away from them. He called over his shoulder, "Race you to the boat!"

* * *

"...the car I sold it, if this is Tuesday night I'm bowling, if you've got something to sell I'm not buying."

Kent peered around the kitchen door frame.

Suzanne was standing in front of the stove, stirring something in a large saucepan, and singing along to the song coming from the radio that sat on the counter.

"Suzanne," he said.

She looked up at his voice, smiling when she spotted him. "Hi Kent. Are you finished cleaning?" He nodded. She hummed softly before glancing out the window in front of the stove. "Jack's still mowing the lawn, isn't he?"

Last summer, Bob had mowed the lawn but now that Jack and Kent were turning twelve he'd declared they were old enough to do it.

"Yeah." Kent walked over to her. Suzanne was a lot smaller then Kent's mother and at twelve years old, he was almost as tall as she was. He looked down at what she was cooking. "What are you making? Is it anything I can help with?"

"Cherry pie filling," she said. "You can absolutely lend me a hand if you want, but are you sure you wouldn't rather stay in the living room with Bitty?"

Kent shook his head. "He's watching Baby Looney Tunes and I don't really like it. It seems kinda stupid."

"It's not my favorite show of his either," Suzanne agreed. She bumped her shoulder against Kent's, "Go wash your hands and I;ll teach you how to make a pie crust. By the time we finish that, this should be ready to pour."

"Okay!" As he was washing his hands, he said, "Can we change the radio station though? You and Bitty always sing when you're baking and I don't know this song."

"Sure." She reached over to play with the dial on the radio. As she did, she said, "You know, I never realized you and Jack noticed that. I know you two usually play video games or watch TV when Bitty's helping me, you could've asked us to stop."

"We always notice what Bitty's doing." His head was ducked down as he lathered the soap on his hands up, so he didn't noticed the way Suzanne's eyes went a little wide before her lips settled into a softer smile. "We never mentioned it because it doesn't bother us. We usually end up singing along." Just as the water wiped the last of the soap from his hands, he heard the radio catch. He perked up, "That one! Can we listen to that one?"

Suzanne laughed, "Of course." She flipped the channel back to the one she'd almost passed. "Aright then, why don't you grab the flour and salt from the cabinets? I'll get us the butter and some ice water."

"Okay!" As Kent made his way to the cabinet he'd seen Suzanne and Bitty grab their baking ingredient from, he rocked to the beat of the song on the radio and sung under his breath, "Give me all the things that money can't buy. You think you gotta keep me iced  
You don't. You think I'm gonna spend your cash. I won't. Even if you were broke, my love don't cost a thing."

* * *

Despite the fact that two thirds of the house was American, they agreed almost unanimously to celebrate Canada Day instead of the Fourth of July so that they could spend the fourth focused on Kent's birthday.

They had spent most of the day outside, barbecuing and playing games out on the lawn. Now that the sun had gone down, they had dragged lawn chairs out to the fire pit. They had a packet of sparklers, some smaller fireworks, and ingredients for s'mores.

Bitty was on his father's lap, sitting still as he fixed the smeared lines of red and white body paint Bitty was wearing under his eyes, when Elise shouted, "Kent!"

He turned his head a bit to see what was going on.

Kent and Jack had wandered away from the fire once Remy lit their sparklers so that they could see the lights clearer which made it pretty easy to spot them.

Kent was standing by the tree line. His body was facing the forest, but he had turned to look over his shoulder at his mother's name. Red light lit up his face, confusion evident across it, and Bitty could see the small maple leaf that Alicia had drawn on Kent's cheek earlier that day.

Jack stood a little bit behind Kent, closer to the fire then the trees, and had turned to see what Elise wanted as well. He had CANADA written under his eyes - CAN under one and ADA under the other - in alternating red and white paint. He'd been ecstatic to be celebrating the holiday. Usually Kent would make comments about America being a superior country, but today he'd been pretty much silent on the issue. Bitty knew it was because while Kent found it fun to tease Jack, he also knew that sometimes Jack was more sensitive about that stuff and he didn't want to risk ruining Jack's day.

"What'd I do?" Kent hollered.

"Away from the trees!" Elise said. "We don't need any forest fires today."

Bitty tacked on, "Only you can prevent forest fires!" because he knew that Kent found those Smokey the Bear kinda creepy. He didn't like when Bitty talked about seeing Santa Claus at the mall either, but while Kent had an entire rant about why he found Smokey the Bear creepy he never elaborated on the Santa Claus thing. Jack almost elbowed him before he could get very far.

Kent's reaction was almost instantaneous, his nose wrinkled and he took a step away from the trees. Jack tipped his head back and laughed. It was quiet outside and the sound echoed through the night.

It made Bitty grin.

It wasn't like Jack never laughed, but he was more quiet giggles and soft chuckles then loud boisterous laughter.

Saying something to make Jack laugh like that always made Bitty feel nice.

"Is my paint fixed?" Bitty asked, turning attention back to his father. "Can I have a sparkler and go play with Jack and Kent?"

His father gave a hum, squinting as he examined the newly painted lines before nodding. He patted Bitty on the lower back, "Go ahead then."

"Do you want red or white, Bits?" Bob asked, leaning down to grab the package from next to him. When Bitty asked for a white one, he pulled one out and tipped it in Remy's direction so he could light it.

"Boys!" Suzanne called. "Why don't you come back over here and play with Bitty?"

There wasn't even a pause before Jack and Kent shouted back, "Okay! We're coming!"

* * *

Jack let himself glide down the ice, no longer lifting his skates under him to push himself faster.

He had spending so much time outside that his skin almost always felt warm and sunkissed. That was nice, but he felt much more at ease now with frost biting his cheeks and the smell of ice in his nose. Being on the ice brought a sense of belonging that didn't feel anywhere else.

As he skated by the doors, he caught a glimpse of Kent and Bitty in the lobby outside. Kent was knelt down in front of Bitty, unlacing his skates, while Bitty looked down at him. Kent had his head ducked, smiling, while Bitty had one of his hands over his mouth and a sparkle in his eyes that made it clear he was laughing.

The four of them had been skating together, but they'd been there for a fairly long time and Bitty wasn't used to skating for long periods of time the way Jack was. He'd wanted to skate a little longer, but Bitty was pretty much done and Kent wanted food so his dad had taken them and told Jack he could have ten more minutes before he had to step off.

Normally, Jack liked being on the ice alone. As much as he liked hockey, sometimes it was overwhelming to have teammates surrounding him and rivals glaring at him and parents in the stands screaming at him.

Now though, Jack kinda wanted Bitty and Kent back on the ice with him. He missed Kent skating backwards in front of him as they spoke and the way his celly's were always super exuberant even though the goal was empty. He missed watching Bitty skate around the rink with a confidence that he hadn't had two years ago and hearing Bitty's breathless laugh when he got dizzy from spinning too much.

Jack had always seen the ice as the one place he belonged, but that wasn't the case anymore. He belonged at Bitty and Kent's side just as much as he belonged here.

"Jack." He'd passed by the door, but now Jack spin on his skates so he was facing it again. His father, their ride to the rink, was poking his head into the door. "Your ten minutes are up kiddo. Get out here and get your skates off so we can go grab McDonalds."

"I'm coming!" Jack said. He pushed himself towards the exit, not caring about getting off the ice nearly as much as he would have if he wasn't leaving it to be with Kent and Bitty. He just really, really hoped Kent wouldn't make fun of him for ordering a snack wrap instead of McNuggets.

* * *

Kent sat on the back of the couch with his legs hooked over Bitty's shoulders. Bitty had Kent's gameboy in his hands and his head ducked down as he looked at the screen. Jack was sitting next to Bitty, his shoulder leaned against Kent's shin as he looked over.

"I want this one," Bitty said. "Can I have this one?"

"If you want," Kent said. "I mean Cyndaquill is my go to because he looks awesome, but he's not exactly the most strategic starter. He's a cool little echinda though. A lot cooler then Knuckles from the-"

"You should get whichever starter you want, Bitty," Jack interrupted. Kent let out a disgruntled noise at being interrupted when they were playing with his game boy and his game. "They're all good choices. Some of them make more sense at the start of the game and some of them are better at the end of the game."

"It's cute," Bitty said as he pressed to accept his starter.

Kent let out a small sound of objection because that was absolutely not how someone was supposed to play Pokemon. Cute didn't win gym battles. "You can't pick your team just because-"

Jack shifted so his elbow dug into Kent's leg and Kent let out a soft grunt. When he turned his gaze away from the screen, looking over at Jack instead, he found Jack was glaring at him. He didn't look away from Kent as he said, "Don't listen to Kent, Bitty. You can chose your team anyway you want."

"I know," Bitty said, leaving Professor Elm's lab without looking at the two of them. "I already told Mr. Bob that I wouldn't listen to any of the stupid things Kent said."

"Hey!" Kent objected. He slipped his feet off of Bitty's shoulders and down between his arms before flipping himself over so he was upside down in front of Bitty. It was an awkward angle and probably wouldn't have been possible if Kent wasn't as flexible as he was. "I thought you liked me."

"I do like you," Bitty said. He glanced up from the screen now, a small smile on his lips. "That doesn't mean you don't say or do stupid things."

Kent had his fingers grabbing the back of the couch as extra support, but he balanced himself to one side and reached up to flick Bitty on the nose. "You are a rude little brat."

"You love me anyway."

It was easier to let himself tilt the rest of the way then to try and pull himself up, so Kent let his body roll over. There was a small shriek from Bitty as he moved the Game Boy out of Kent's way.

Kent fell to the ground with a soft thump. He looked up at the couch, Jack's body as shaking with laughter and though Bitty looked a bit disgruntled his lips were twitching, and grinned. "Yeah. I guess I do."

* * *

Jack and Kent were sitting on the front steps when Bitty came out of the house.

He'd been helping his mother bake Jack's birthday cake, but they were waiting for it to cool before they frosted it. Though his mother was working on home made frosting, Bitty wasn't allowed to help because he spent too much time dipping his fingers into it considering how much sugar was in frosting.

The two older boys were close enough that their shoulders and knees were bumping, but Bitty managed to squeeze one foot between them. They glanced back at him before scooting apart so he could put himself between them.

"Hey," Kent greeted. Usually his words were accompanied with large smiles, but now that the end of the summer was approaching he was starting to mellow out. Bitty didn't like that much. Being around Kent was like being around a sun from a picture book, he was always smiling and happy and encouraging. It never ceased to make Bitty feel the same. "All done?"

"Uh huh. It has to cool down before we put the frosting on it." Bitty said. Sometimes he disliked how much bigger Kent and Jack were, it made him feel like a baby, but right now he liked having them on either side of him. It felt kinda like he could ignore everything going on as long as he was between them. "What are you guys doing?"

"Talking about what to do tomorrow," Jack answered. "Since we're leaving this weekend, we wanted to make sure we'd done everything we wanted to do this summer."

"Jack wanted to make sure we did everything we wanted to do," Kent corrected. "I tried saying we could do anything we forgot about next summer."

"Next summer is a long ways away," Jack pointed out.

A heavy silence followed his words. Bitty looked down at the ground, Kent turned his head to look off to his left, and Jack let out a sigh and his shoulders slumped.

Bitty was holding onto the bottom of the step they were sitting on and now he curled his fingers tighter around it.

The end of the summer really, really sucked. 

* * *

Jack was sitting on the floor in front of his chest of drawers, instead of sharing the large dresser and getting their clothes mixed up each boy had a set of plastic drawers to keep their clothes in over the summer, with his legs crossed under him and his suitcase open next to him.

"Oh man." Jack looked over to find Remy coming down the stairs. "Kent hasn't even started packing yet, has he?"

"Um..." Jack didn't really want to lie to Kent's father, but he also didn't want to tell him that Kent had opened his drawers that morning, stared at them for thirty seconds, and then slammed it shut before grabbing Bitty and Jack's hands to pull them upstairs to play street hockey.

Remy gave a small laugh. "You don't have to answer that."

"Oh." His relief must have been evident in his voice because Remy's lips twitched up in an amused smile. "Alright."

His eyes flicked to Jack's suitcase and then back at his chest. "'Bout halfway done, yeah?"

"Uh huh." Jack's fingers curled around the shirt in his hands. "Kent and Bitty went upstairs to find the Phase Ten cards. I thought I'd get a little more packing done since it always takes them a while."

"Smart plan." Remy said, "I'm pretty sure Kent isn't even going to start until his mother or I come down and make him. I was going to do it now, but if you boys are playing I'll give him a little more time."

"It's really hard," Jack said. He felt like Remy was implying Kent wasn't packing because he thought Kent was brushing it aside which wasn't an all together unrealistic thing to assume when it came to Kent and anything that wasn't hockey, but it wasn't right in this case. "I do it in pieces because it makes it easier to deal with the fact that once I'm finished I won't get to see Kent and Bitty for a year, but Kent does it at the last minute so that he doesn't have to think about the fact that we have to leave. Bitty usually does his whenever his parents can help because he'll forget things, but I think he's going to be like Kent. He'd prefer to wait until the last minute to think about it."

Remy hummed before saying, "You know, Elise and I don't have soulmates so we don't really know what it feels like to be apart from them. So sometimes we don't realize what you boys are going through. It'd be really helpful if Kent would tell us stuff like that."

"Kent doesn't like talking about that kind of stuff," Jack said. It was something he'd been noticing more recently. As much as Kent liked to talk, it was rarely ever about something important. He'd rather talk about the Rangers or ask questions on the logistics of ChalkZone in real life then talk about his feelings.

"Yeah, I know." Remy flashed Jack a small, soft smile. "So do me a favor and encourage him a bit, alright? He's a pretty stubborn kid, so he won't always listen but sometimes it helps when someone pushes you."

Jack didn't even need to consider it before nodding, because sometimes Kent would need help and soulmates were supposed to be there for you when things got rough. "I will."

* * *

When as soon as Kent's mother pushed open the door to their home, Kent darted under arm.

"Welcome home," his grandmother greeted. She had been coming over to check on the house during summer and was going to be having dinner with them that night before returning to her own home. "How was your summer?"

Kent didn't say anything, just climbed up onto the sofa with her. He sat close to her and picked Kit Purrson up from the floor so he could bury his face into his chest. He still felt like crying, had felt like it since they pulled out of the driveway at the summer house and he watched Jack and Bitty go towards the airport while he went towards his home, but with his grandmother by him and Kit Purrson nuzzling against him it was a little less intense.

There was a moment where Kent was absolutely sure the adults were all exchanging looks above his head before his grandmother shifted. She wrapped one arm around his shoulders, pulling him a bit closer, "I know that feeling, kiddo. Leaving your grandfather was always hard for me."

"You and grandpa weren't always together?" Kent asked. Though he knew it was rude, he kept his face buried in his cat's fur instead of looking at her.

"No," she said. "There were times when your grandfather had to go on a business trip or when I had to go out of town for a weekend to chaperone one of your mother's school trips."

"It hurts," Kent murmured. "It hurts more every-time."

"That's because you love them a little more every-time," she answered. He felt her press a kiss to his head. "But you know, no matter how many times I had to leave your grandfather or how much it hurt, I loved him so much that it was worth it. I wouldn't trade a single moment I spent with him for anything in the world."

"Not a single one?"

"Not a single one," she confirmed.

Kent thought about it a moment before looking up from Kit Purrson. He met her eyes as he said, "I don't think I would trade any of them either, but that doesn't make it hurt any less."

"No," she agreed. Her smile went a little sad. "No, it doesn't."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hey guys, how is everyone? Question for anyone reading this fic who is a hockey fan and not just a hockey comic fan - how are you feeling? Have you cried yet? The Caps are my number 3 and I have cried so much over Lats. Also Taylor Hall and the Oilers. The biggest thing for me was Jason Demers leaving the Stars though!!! I don't want to cheer for the Panthers but I want to support all my current and former Star boys!!
> 
> 2) The format for this chapter is different. I'm super sorry if me constantly changing things is disorienting? I'm just trying to find what works best for my creativity and stuff. I think I'm going to keep the usual format for the school year and then use this for summer chapters. 
> 
> 3) the timeline of this chapter is not terribly clear - but each boy has a section per month for total of three sections per character over June/July/August
> 
> 4) Each boy has a section in this chapter were they interact with a parent that isn't their own and I had a lot of fun writing that. I mean, that whole situation is going to get a little angsty later in this fic, but right now their just all these people who are watching these boys grow up with each other and caring about each of them because they know all of them are going to be in each other's life for a long time. On that note though - I especially love writing Bob with Bitty. 
> 
> 5) Also, some of you have had some complaints so let me say know - this chapter is very fluffy and has no plot. A LOT of this fic is very fluffy and has no plot. That being said, the next few chapters do deal with some stuff that's not as fluffy. Kent's got some stuff going on and then Kent & Jack got some stuff going on. 
> 
> 6) I'm not saying everyone in Georgia likes country music. But I am saying that Suzanne Bittle absolutely does. Also I'm country trash. Other songs considered for that section are - "My Next Thirty Years", "Who I Am", "Austin", and "Two People Fell in Love". Also, we know Bitty is Beyonce trash but Kent is absolutely a Top 20 Pop Princess. 
> 
> 7) I looked up cartoons from this time period for the off hand mention Kent has so he's a question for those of you watching cartoons in the early 2000's - Code Name Kids Next Door or Code Lyoko? Teen Titans or Justice League? Jimmy Newtron or Fairly Oddparents? 
> 
> 8) Kent finding cartoons that Bitty likes stupid/childish is kinda the start of me showing how the age difference is going to be a bit more obvious in the oncoming chapters. 
> 
> 9) I've been getting a lot of hate on one of my other stories for my authors notes, so I just wanted to ask one more time if they bothered you guys? I know some of you show some concern for my lack of confidence in them, but some of you really like seeing my thought process so....
> 
> 10) I feel like Kent gets in trouble a lot? Which is not my intention? I just see him as being a lot more outgoing then Jack or Bitty, Bitty is a people person but he's got a stricter comfort zone than Kent, and therefore being one for childish mischief. 
> 
> 11) I try to demonstrate all three boys together, their interactions had duos, and how they act when their alone but still near each other, but I feel like it's very heavy on Kent and Jack while Bitty is off on his own? Let me know what you think. 
> 
> 12) I honesty can't decide if the ice rink the boys go to near their summer house is just unpopular and that's why there isn't ever anyone else there or if Bob rents it out for them everytime they go. 
> 
> 13) Guess whose been playing Pokemon Go? Me. 
> 
> 14) The things Kent does with his body in the sixth section should be impossible, but I modeled it after something my actual sister has done. Flexible people are ridiculous. 
> 
> 15) Jack calls Bob "papa" in this chapter instead of père because I was informed that was a little more formal french then what Jack would be speaking. Thank you for everyone who gave me that tidbit! I'll fix the previous chapters soon. 
> 
> 16) This is, for the record, unbetaed right now but Rachel had the chapter and she'll get to it when she isn't so busy!


	9. August-October 2002

"Dad!" Kent shouted as he burst through the front door. He dropped his hockey bag in the entry way as he ran through the hall. "Dad! Guess what happened at practice!"

He was going to just pass through the dining room on his way to the living room or study, assuming his father would be in one or the other, but stopped short when he reached the entry way.

His father was sitting at the dining room table with two people Kent had never seen before. One of them was a woman with dark skin and black hair that fell past her shoulders in curls. She was sitting across from his father with her forearms on the table and a steaming mug cradled between her hands. There was a soft smile on her lips. The other was a man with grey eyes that looked the same shade as Kent's. He was looking at Kent with a mix of expectancy and nervousness.

Kent found it unsettling.

"Hey, kiddo," his father greeted. Kent crossed the room to get to his side. It brought him closer to the man with the unsettling gaze, but he'd rather be by his father then alone across the room. "What's up?"

Kent glanced at the couple across the table before focusing on him, "I got an awesome bar-down goal today. Trevor was right up on me and I couldn't get away so I thought hitting the crossbar would be better then letting him have it since it could bounce, but instead it went down into the net. It sucks that it was only practice, but it was still pretty cool."

"Crossbar," the woman said. She sounded confused, but curious about whatever she was missing. "Do you play soccer?"

Before Kent could answer, his mother's voice came floating down the hall, "Kent! How many times do I have to tell you not to leave your hockey gear in the middle of the hallway? It goes in the closet or-"

Her words cut off abruptly as she appeared in the doorway, wearing the black dress and gold blazer she'd worn to work but with Kent's custom Ranger themed hockey bag over her shoulder, and spotted their visitors.

The look in her face had been exasperated and slightly annoyed when she'd walked in, but now it went straight to cold fury. Kent couldn't remember ever seeing that look on his mothers face.

"Kent," she said. Her gaze stayed on the man at the table with his father. "Come grab your bag. Once it's put away you can go up to your room and call Jack and Bitty."

"Really?" Kent asked. Usually he had to wait until after dinner to call them.

His father glanced between the other man, whose expression had gone pinched and irritated, and his mother, who looked like she was considering pulling Kent's hockey stick out to bash someone's head in.

After a second, he plastered on an obviously fake smile and gave Kent's lower back a small pat, "Yeah. Go ahead."

Kent glanced between everyone before nodding. "Alright."

He walked over to his mother, letting her slide the bag from her shoulder to his. He was so used to the familiar weight that it didn't really phase him.

She tore her eyes away from the man long enough to fix Kent with a look, expression softening with fondness, and said, "In the closet or out in the garage. Not the middle of the hallway."

"I know, mama."

She ruffled his hair before tapping the back of his head. "Get outta here."

Kent trudged out of the room.

He considered doing as he was told for a moment before deciding that everyone was being really weird and he wanted to know why.

So instead of making his way to the closet where his bag went, he turned into the hallway then pressed his back against the wall.

There was a silent moment before someone with a deep voice, Kent figured it was the man he didn't know, said, "You didn't have to send him out of the room, Elise."

"I don't want him anywhere near you so yeah I did, Jamie," his mother answered.

"You can't keep my son from-"

"You don't have a son," his mother interrupted. Her voice, cold and angry, sent a shiver down Kent's spine. "You gave that up twelve years ago. You don't get to waltz in here and decide you want one now."

"I wasn't ready for a family twelve years ago-"

"Neither was I, but that didn't stop me from raising my son."

There was a long stretch of silence before the woman spoke, "Mrs. Bennett-"

"Parson," his mother corrected. Kent was kind of surprised. It was rare that she actually corrected someone on her last name. "I didn't change my name after my marriage. I wanted my son to share his name with at least one of his parents."

"Mrs. Parson, then," she amended, seeming unaffected. "Jamie made a mistake back then. He's been telling me that for years. It's been rough going for a while so we didn't want to bring a child into that environment, but things have smoothed out and we're ready to have a family. Kent is Jamie's son and we'd like him to be a part of that."

"Angelica - that's your name right? I remember seeing it on Jamie's wrists when we were dating - that's a nice speech, but it doesn't mean anything to me. When I had Kent I was still in college. Do you think I didn't struggle with raising him by myself while finishing school? Or that my husband and I didn't struggle to raise a five year old when we were fresh out of college and without stable jobs? I did. We did." His mother continued, "But no matter how much I was struggling, I wanted and loved my son. So you can take the excuse that what kept Jamie from Kent was any kind of struggle you went through and shove it up your ass."

The conversation was continuing, but Kent pushed himself off the wall.

He left his hockey bag on the floor outside the hallway as he made his way to the stairs and up to his bedroom.

He'd always known his dad wasn't his biological father, Remy was there in all of his memories but he had been sat down one day when he was six or seven and they'd explained it to him, but he'd never really thought about the fact that he had another dad out there in the world.

The man was a none entity in Kent's life and he'd never considered the idea that someday he might be a part of it.

Now that the idea was laid out in front of him, Kent didn't really know how to feel or what to think. 

* * *

"I want a cookie."

Bitty rolled over on his side so he could peer off the side of his bed. He felt Claire shift onto her knees behind him and peer over his body.

Tyler and Tiffany were lying on the floor, sleeping bags pushed all the way together.

They were having a sleep over at Bitty house. Originally Bitty and Tyler were going to sleep on the floor so the girls could have the bed, but Tiffany had wanted to sleep with Tyler because that's what they did when they slept at each others houses.

His mother had been a little unsure, but had relented to their pleas after a call to Claire's parents.

"You had three before bed," Claire said.

"They were really good," Tyler declared. "I want another."

"I'm not supposed to be out of bed after nine," Bitty said.

Tiffany craned her head back to look at the elephant shaped clock on Bitty's night stand. "It's only 8: 54! We could go to the kitchen get a cookie and get back before nine!"  
  
Bitty considered it for a moment before nodding, "We should be quiet though. Mama might get mad even though it's not nine yet."

They threw their blankets off and snuck out of the room. They giggled to themselves as they crept through the hallways of the Bittle home, the four of them walking practically on top of each other.

"-doesn't want to take it to court," he heard his mother saying as they approached the living room. He held one hand out to stop the others in their tracks and brought a finger to his lips to silence them.

"Well, I don't blame them," his father answered. Bitty plastered his chest against the wall and peered around the doorframe to look into the living room. His mother was sitting on the couch with her feet tucked under her while his father was on the floor with a stack of papers next to him. He had one of them in his hands, examining it even as he talked to his wife. "They tend to rule in favor of bonded pairs, even if the other parent has a more favorable living situation." He let out a long sigh as he sat the paper in highlands aside, "I'm going to lose my best running back to Calculus."

"Yeah that's the problem. She doesn't want him anywhere near Kent, but if she fights it then she's risking losing him completely. If they set up an arrangement out of court, then it's at least on her terms." She added, "Why don't you see if any of your other players are passing Calculus? They could tutor him."

Part of Bitty wanted to hang around to listen since he'd heard Kent mentioned, but he found it hard to follow his parents conversations when they were having more then one like they were now. There were also three other seven year olds behind him that he was supposed to be leading on a mission for cookies.

Assured that his parents were busy with each other, Bitty darted across the entry way and motioned for the others to follow.

They continued to tiptoe until they reached the kitchen.

When they did, Bitty made his way to the counter that held the cookie jar. He reached for it and pulled it towards him.

He pulled the lid off and started distributing the cookies amongst his cohorts.

Right as he was reaching his hand in to grab himself a cookie, the light came on and his father demanded, "What do you kids think your doing?"

Bitty froze.

After a moment, he turned slowly.

Tyler had stopped in the middle of a bite so his cookie was closed between his teeth. Tiffany had hers raised to her mouth, but hadn't quite gotten there. Claire had her hands, with her cookie in them, behind her back as if his father would think she didn't have anything.

His father stood in the doorway, bulky frame taking up the space and making him look even more intimidating.

"I thought we were really quiet," Bitty said, his brain stuck on the fact that they'd gotten caught in his shock.

His fathers lips twitched, amusement playing on his face, "Son, the four of you were giggling all the way down the hall. We'd have to be deaf to miss that."

* * *

"-exploded in my face!" Kent exclaimed. "It was awesome!"

Jack frowned as he watched him. Though Kent was all smiles and enthusiastic hand waving, there was something weird about his smile. He'd noticed something off in Kent's voice during their phone calls that month, but he hadn't been sure that something was wrong until they'd opened up their video call a few minutes ago.

It bothered him that he didn't know what was bothering Kent.

"That sounds fun," Bitty said. Jack was relieved that Bitty at least appeared to be in his normal high spirits. His hair was tousled from running around outside and there was a smear of dirt on his cheek, but his smile was completely real. "I've never made a volcano. Have you, Jack?"

"I made one in science last year," he answered. "But we didn't blow them up like Kent did."

"We should make one next summer," Kent declared. "They don't take a whole lot of work."

"Wouldn't it be messy though?" Bitty asked.

"Yeah, but we could blow it up outside and it wouldn't be that bad. We could even dye the lava stuff red. We didn't get to do that in class, but it'd make it even cooler right?"

"I don't know if cool is really the word to describe magma," Jack declared.   
  
There was a beat of silence before Kent burst out laughing. Bitty put his hand over his mouth, giggling quietly.

"That was so lame!" Kent gasped out between laughing fits.

Jack smiled a little bit.

Maybe Kent didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering him, but Jack would find ways to make Kent feel better even without knowing the problem.

Even if that meant telling horrible jokes.

* * *

Kent sat on the couch in the living room with his legs folded under him and Kit Purrson in his lap.

He was holding the phone with one hand while he scratched the cat behind the ear with the other.

"-could see so much!" Jack was saying. "You could see the pyramids being built or the French revolution! You could see the first hockey game! Ever! How cool would that be?"

When Kent had read the question - would you rather travel back to the past or travel to the future - out of a book one of the girls in his class had, he'd known which one Jack was going to pick. He hadn't expected Jack to be so enthusiastic about it once the question was posed, ranting and defending his stance with vehemence.

Jack was usually a little more reserved in conversations, preferring to let Bitty and Kent do the talking, so Kent liked hearing him so excited even if the cause was a stupid question.

"You don't think seeing the future would be cool?" Bitty asked.

"I mean, yeah. Obviously it would be," Jack said. "I just think it'd be cooler to watch history being made "

"But if you went to the future you could see all kinds of cool things that don't exist yet!" Bitty said. "There could be flying cars and hoverboards or jetpacks! If you went back to the past you'd just see things that you can still see today."

"That's not necessarily true," Jack argued. "There are tons of things in ruins or just completely wiped off the mark now."

Bitty let out a considering hum. Then he asked, "Which would you choose, Kent?"

Even though Kent had asked the question, he hadn't really considered what his answer would be.

He looked down at the cat in his lap, stroking his hand through fur as he thought.

What Jack said was true and Kent thought it might have been cool to meet Vikings or to see the Original Six play their first season, but he also thought about the conversation he'd heard between his mother and biological father. It'd been a little over a month since then and the only indication Kent had had that anything was going on had been when he'd gone with his mother to pick some papers up from a lawyer. No one was talking about it, but Kent was still thinking about it. He wanted to know where this whole thing was going, if it was going anywhere, and how he was supposed to react to it.

"The future," Kent decided. He gave a firm nod even though Jack and Bitty couldn't see it. "I'd definitely rather go to the future."

* * *

"Alright, alright! We'll get the next one," Coach Bittle shouted. He was clapping each boy on the back as they passed him to reach the bench. Bittle felt his father squeeze his shoulder quickly as he passed, then his attention turned to the group of players coming off the bench. "Get out there and play some ball, boys."

Bitty fell onto the bench and grabbed his Gatorade bottle. He took a few large gulps, the orange taste soothing his parched throat, before he set it back down.

As he wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand, he glanced around.

Most of the other boys on the bench were ready to get back on the field. Kevin, the boy who usually played quarterback when Bitty was on the field, was watching the game with eyes that seemed to spark with jealousy. His leg was bouncing with a barely hidden desire to get back out there. Logan and Lance, twin brothers who played defense and had a platonic soulbond, were standing on the bench and cheering. Logan was waving his helmet in the air as he jumped, ready to run out onto the field when it was his turn. Lance had his hands cupped around his mouth as he shouted, voice excited and eager.

Bitty ducked his head down. His hands settles on his knees and he twisted the fabric of his pants in his hands. 

There were very few things he didn't want to do more then playing football, he could be at home baking or at the ice rink skating or dancing in his living room or talking to Jack and Kent, but football was part of his family's routine so he'd never really thought about it much until now.

This season though it had been harder to stop from complaining everytime his mother told him to get around for practice or a game and feeling like he was the only one who wasn't enjoying the game made him feel out of place.

Part of him wanted to ask if he could quit, but he didn't think his dad would let him. He was pretty insistent that kids should play sports, Bitty had heard him ranting before about how he'd learned a lot of of life lessons while playing sports when he was younger, and coaching football was his dads job so the sport clearly meant a lot to him.

The whistle sounding and the sudden rise in cheering around him drew Bitty gaze up from the ground.

He saw the boys on the field coming towards him, they switched off every goal so that everyone on the team got to play plenty, with red, sweaty faces and wide grins.

He hadn't realized that much time had passed.

"Nice job, boys," Coach Bittle praised, holding a hand out to high five each boy that ran past him. "The rest of you get out there and keep it going."

Bitty pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his helmet off the bench next to him, and jogged out with a sigh. 

* * *

Jack was sitting at the kitchen island with his feet hooked around the bar at the bottom of his stool and his chin resting on crossed arms.

His father sat on a chair in the middle of the space between the island and the sink. His mother stood behind him with an electric razor in her hands and a trash can between the two of them. The radio on the counter was on, playing the Shakira song that Kent had been singing all month.

His mother didn't always shave his father's head since sometimes it was just easier to go to the Barber, but Jack always liked watching when she did. The exchange was always fond and happy. Jack liked being in the warm atmosphere and listening to his parents stories.

  
"Watch the ears," Bob cautioned as Alicia moved the razor to trim off the hair near them. "I don't feel like going to the ER tonight."

Alicia rolled her eyes and Jack hid a grin against his arm. "I clipped you once and it wasn't that bad."

"Not that bad? Ali, we spent the night in the ER! I had every sports reporter and hockey player in Pittsburgh making fun if me for weeks!"

"I like the implication there that the chirping was worse than the ER trip."

"It was."

Jack laughed.

The muffled sound drew both of his parents attention to him.

"What are you laughing about over there?" Bob asked. "You're next, you know."

"What? No!" Jack objected, lifting his head so his words were loud and clear. "I wanna grow it out like Jagr's!"

"Absolutely not," Alicia said as Bob started laughing, low and belly deep.

She'd drawn the razor away from his head when her attention had been stolen by Jacks laughter. It was clearly a good idea because Jack thought that given the way his father was shaking they'd definitely have ended up in the ER.

"But mom," Jack whined, "I'm in the minor league now and-"

Alicia cut him off before he could elaborate further, "Nope. No son of mine is going to be imitating the mop head that Jagr has been passing off for hair."

Between laughs, Bob choked out, "Maybe when your in the Q, buddy."

"That's years away!"

"Good," Alicia declared. "Maybe by then someone in the NHL will finally get some style and you'll find a better idol."

* * *

Kent sat at one of the high tables in McDonald's. He had his feet sat on the bar at the bottom of the chair, he'd been growing a lot recently but he wasn't quite tall enough to touch the floor on a risen chair, and was leaned over so he could push he straw in his drink around with his lip.

"Alright, here you go kiddo," Remy declared as he walked up. He set the tray with their food on the table between them.

The two of them were out spending his dad's afternoon off together. They'd gone to see the second Spiderman movie and bought Kent a new roll of stick tape. The plan was to head home after they ate and play some video games until his mother got out of work.

"Thank you," Kent said.

He snagged the chicken nuggets and fries from the tray, setting them in front of him.  
  
As he was popping the chicken box open, his father said, "So your mom spoke to you last night, right?"

"Yeah," Kent said.

Last night, after his phone call with Jack and Bitty, his mother had come in to tell him what Kent had already known - that the man who and come to their house several weeks ago was his biological father and he wanted to have a relationship with Kent. For now, that just meant that two or three times a week Kent would spend a few hours with him until they were more comfortable with each other.

"Are you excited?" Remy asked.

Kent shrugged, plucking a thing of sweet and sour sauce off the tray. As he peeled back the cover, he said, "I guess. I don't get why I have to go with him though. I already have a dad."

There was a moment of silence before Remy said, "Yeah, you do, kiddo." His voices sounded a bit rough, so Kent lifted his gaze from his food to look at him. There was a look of raw affection tinted with something like heartache on his face. Before Kent could ask about it, Remy reached out and put a hand on his head. "I don't want you to forget that okay? No matter what happens, you will always be my son." Kent hadn't ever thought about not being his fathers son, even with the introduction of his biological one, so he gave an understanding nod. His father smiled at him as he ruffled his hair. When he pulled back, Kent's attention turned back to his food. Remy added, "That being said, plenty of people have more than one dad. Being my son doesn't mean you can't be his too."

"Mom doesn't want me to be around him," Kent said. Even if he hadn't eavesdropped on their original discussion, he would have known that. It had been obvious in her tone and body language the night before.

Remy hummed before answering, "I think it's more accurate to say that your mother has wanted him around you for so long that she's having a hard time with the idea that it could be a reality."

Kent took a moment to think about it before admitting, "I don't think I understand."

"It's not that important," he said. "What is important is that you understand that this is about what you want, okay? If you spend some time with him and want him around, that's fine. Your mother will learn to handle it. If you spend some time with him and don't want him around, that's fine to. We'll handle it."

Kent glanced up from the chicken nugget he'd been dipping. He met his father's eyes. "You swear?"

"Absolutely," Remy agreed. "We all just want you to be happy. If something were doing is upsetting you, then you've just got to let us know and we'll find a way to fix it."

* * *

"Mama." Suzanne had been on her way to the laundry room, but she stopped at the sound of Bitty voice. Shifting the basket onto her hip, she turned to see Bitty standing in the dining room doorway. "Can I call Kent and Jack now?"

She hummed softy. It was a little past seven which meant it was around the boys usual call time. She'd gotten a message from Alicia letting her know that Jack was ready a while ago and Elise had messaged a few minutes before telling her that they'd arrived home from Kent's game and were ready on that end.

"You finished your homework?"

"Yes." The answer came just a little too quickly. She quirked an eyebrow at him. A beat. "No."

"You know the rules, no phone calls until you've finished your homework," she said. "Sit down at the table and finish up. Then you can call."

"But mama, I was gonna ask Jack for help on my math homework."

Her eyebrow arced higher, "Have you asked for Jacks help on your homework before? Even though your supposed to do it before you talk to him?"

Bitty hesitated for a moment before nodding, already looking chastised. He looked at the ground before meeting her eyes, looking very suddenly confident. "But only when my homework is really hard! Jack is really, really good at multiplying and he teaches me tricks for it! Like if I need to do nine times six, I put my sixth finger down and that's the answer!"

A spring of amusement rose in her chest. Though she didn't approve of him lying to her, there was something funny about how insistent he was that he should be able to talk to Jack for help with math of all things.

"And Kent?" she asked.

"Kent doesn't like math, so he just messes around while Jack is teaching me. He said he doesn't mind waiting though."

She took a moment to consider a plan of action before saying, "It's not okay to lie to me about your homework. You know that, don't you?"

Bitty nodded. "Yes, mama. I'm sorry for lying."

"It's okay, buddy. Just try not to do it again." When he nodded his agreement, she added, "That being said, I'm glad your asking for help when you did it so we'll make a new rule. You can get Jack's help on your homework as long as you tell me you don't have it finished before you call him. Does that sound fair?"

He gave another nod, quicker and more eager then the last few. "Uh huh! Thank you, mama!"

"You're welcome." She reached out with the hand not holding the laundry basket to ruffle his hair. "Go grab the phone, baby."

* * *

Jack watched as Kent settled onto his bed. He'd gone trick or treating with his friends which led to him staying out a bit later to hang out with them, so he was still dressed on his ninja turtle costume even though Bitty and Jack had both changed and showered already. He had pulled the blue bandana off his eyes though, leaving sweaty blonde hair pushed against his forehead.

"That is a lot of candy," Bitty said, sounding a bit awed as Kent upended his bag and let his candy spill across the blanket.

"Yeah," Kent agreed. "I didn't get it all of it from trick or treating though. Kurt's allergic to chocolate and Charlie, his soulmate, doesn't eat it since it doesn't seem fair to him so Kurt's parents bought like seven bags of suckers and smarties for us to split."

"I don't think I'd give chocolate up for you," Bitty remarked.

"Yeah." Kent looked up from his bed, having already started sorting the candy, and flashed a bright toothy grin at the camera. "I wouldn't give chocolate up for you either."

"Well," Jack interjected, "I'd give chocolate up for either of you."

"You rarely eat chocolate." Kent sounded personally offended as he said, "You probably get excited when someone gives you an apple."

Jack shrugged, because it wasn't untrue. He just didn't eat a lot of candy. Even after giving a good portion to his parents, he ended up throwing a lot away. It was nice when people gave him something he'd actually eat.

"I'd still give it up," Jack said.

"I think that's sweet," Bitty said. He gave Jack a small smile which Jack returned without thought.

"It would be sweeter if he gave up apples for us."

"Well, I don't like you quite that much," Jack said.

It made Bitty and Kent both laugh.

Jack ducked his head, lips spreading in a wide smile.

Nothing felt better then being the reason his soulmates were laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) sighs. I took out this end note to do a word count and forgot to put it back. Rewrite time. Hope I don't forget anything important. 
> 
> 2) Apologies for any spelling errors in this chapter. I'm on mobile exclusively due to a computer issue and auto-correct/auto-finish is a bitch.
> 
> 3) Originally I was going to go back to the previous form for the years, but I actually really enjoyed writing this way for the summer so I wanted to try it. It makes for smaller sections, but you get more of them with more expansion on certain things. I like how it affords me the ability to examine their lives and growth outside of each other, but I can also understand that some of you will find the daily faff a bit boring. If you guys hate this fornat, I'll switch back so please let me know your opinions okay?
> 
> 4) I changed the chapter title format. 
> 
> 5) Each boy has a different family format with different conflicts and that's going to become more obvious now. Kent's is in flux constantly which is going to cause issues for him, while Bitty's will be largely attached to his father and toxic masculinity, and Jack's are well... you know that story already don't you?
> 
> 6) So many of you from Georgia?? It makes me laugh everytime someone new comments on my comment about Georgia schooling in chapter...6 I believe? 
> 
> 7) Would you rather visit the future or the past?
> 
> 8) Kent's ranger hockey bag was absolutely a birthday gift from Jacks family. It's probs even signed.
> 
> 9) The Shakira song mentioned is "Whenever, Wherever". Though, Kent absolutely also loves Hips Don't Lie
> 
> 10) Any of you who don't pay attention to real hockey should look up Jaromir Jagr's hair throughout his career. That's legendary. Jack's hair in the picture of him&Kent in the Q defs looks like he was going for some flow-age. 
> 
> 11) in case anyone was confused - Kent and his mother both use her maiden name because she was unmarried and single when she had him. Remy's last name is Bennett, but Elise didn't take it when she married. 
> 
> 12) I know you guys may have wanted to see Kent's mother talking to him about how father, but I thought it was more important to highlight Remy and Kent's conversation
> 
> 13) They definitely agree to a custody agreement much faster in this story then is realistic. It usually takes a LOT longer then 2.5-3.5 months. 
> 
> 14) This took what feels like a very long time to write and I apologise for the delay. 
> 
> 15) 12 y/o Kent is a chicken nugget fan, but what's your usual Mickey D's order? I like a quarter pounder w/ frozen lemonade. 
> 
> 16) Hopefully Kent's words in his final section make sense? He's old enough to understand situation, but young enough that I think it'd still be kinda of confusing to him?


	10. November 2002 - January 2003

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, as always, to RachelMangeta for betaing.

Jack was lying on the couch, curled into a ball with a brightly colored throw blanket over him, and watching cartoons when his mom came into the room.    
  
"Hey sweetie," she greeted. He glanced up at her as she perched on the end of the couch. "What are you doing in here?"   
  
"Watching Kim Possible," Jack said, his voice slow and sleepy in the early morning. His mom put a hand in his hair. He found her nails scratching against his head soothing and he wiggled up the couch to get closer to her.   
  
She gave a quiet laugh before asking, "Doesn't Kim Possible come on on Friday?"   
  
"I had a game yesterday," Jack said.    
  
"So you decided to watch Kim Possible today instead of your usual Saturday cartoons?"   
  
Jack nodded. "If I don't watch it today, Kent will spoil it."   
  
His mom raised an eyebrow, "Does he do that a lot?"   
  
"Yes!" Jack exclaimed. He spoke with an energy he hadn't had two minutes ago and a certain amount of exasperation and irritation in his voice. "He does it every time I miss an episode of anything! He's the worst!"   
  
"I don't think he does on purpose, sweetheart," she said, amused by her son's annoyance at such a small thing. "You know how Kent gets when he's excited."   
  
"I know he doesn't do it on purpose," Jack said, sounding like he thought his mom was stupid to think otherwise. "That doesn't make it any less annoying."   
  
"I suppose not," she said.    
  
They sat in silence, both of them watching the cartoon playing on the screen.    
  
After a moment, his mother said, "Alright, I've got a conference call with my agent. I'll be in the study of you need me, okay, kiddo?"   
  
"Okay," Jack answered.   
  
She gave his head one final scratch before pulling her hand out of his hair. Then she bent over and pressed a kiss against his temple.    
  
As she stood up and left the room, Jack pulled his blanket tighter around himself and made himself more comfortable.    


* * *

Kent sat across from Jamie in the restaurant booth.    
  
It was their first outing alone since the custody agreement had been made and things had been kind of awkward and stilted since they'd left the house.    
  
Kent wasn't sure if it was just the two of them because Jamie had wanted it that way or if his mother had been clear that Jamie had to have a relationship with Kent before introducing him to his wife, but Kent wished there was someone else with them to help break the silence.    
  
Jamie cleared his throat before breaking the silence, "So, what do you want to do today?"   
  
Kent shrugged one shoulder. His eyes were focused on his cup instead of Jamie. He reached one of his hands up, pushing at the straw in his soda.    
  
When a moment went by without him saying anything, Jamie suggested, "Do you want to go see a movie? One of my coworkers said there was a second Spy Kids movie on theaters. Maybe you want to see that?"   
  
"I've already seen it," Kent said. "My dad took me when it first came out. Jack and Bitty went to see it the same day so that we could all talk about it."   
  
"Oh."    
  
Kent watched Jamie's face fall and felt a pang of regret.    
  
As awkward as this whole situation felt, part of Kent had wanted to be here. If he didn't want to, he could've just told his mom that and she would have done everything in her power to make sure he didn't have to.    
  
He pursed his lips, trying to think of something they could do together. There were lots of things he liked to do, but he knew the point of these outings were for him to get to know his dad and get more comfortable with him.    
  
After a moment, he asked, "Do you know how to skate?"   
  
Jamie looked a little surprised by the question. He echoed back, "Skate?"   
  
"Ice skating," Kent clarified, just in case he thought he meant rollerblading or something.    
  
"Oh. No, I've never been." Before Kent could process the words or feel stupid for his suggestion, Jamie said, "But you play hockey, don't you? I'm sure you're really good at it. Maybe you can teach me?"   
  
"Yeah! I can!" Kent exclaimed. He felt a little honored that Jamie thought he was good enough at skating to be teaching someone and a little excited just at the prospect of being on the ice. "I taught Bitty how to skate. Or well… Jack taught Bitty how to skate, but I was there with them. It didn't look very hard."   
  
"Well I don't know if it's that's easy, but I'm pretty sure you can figure it out," Jamie said, his voice a mixture of happiness and amusement. He propped an elbow up on the table, resting his chin in the palm of his hand as he asked, "Who are Jack and Bitty? Friends of yours?"   
  
"No!" Kent frowned. He shook his head, correcting, "Yes! But they're also my soulmates!"   
  
Just like that, Kent was off and the awkward silence that had settled when they first sat down for lunch was wiped away as Kent started telling stories. Sometimes he would get caught on something and spend thirty minutes on a completely unrelated tangent. When he told Jamie who Jack’s father was he went off talking about Bob Zimmermann's hockey career and when he talked about Bitty playing Pokemon for the first time the previous summer he got sidetracked talking about his favorite Pokemon.

Jamie never seemed to mind. He just listened, looked interested in everything Kent had to say and occasionally asked questions.    


* * *

"-skittles, you know? Like it's not even a contest!" Kent was saying.    
  
Bitty was sitting cross legged on his bed with the phone held up to his ear. He was turned so his back was facing his bedroom door and he could easily look at the clock on his bedside table. His mother had recently replaced the digital one with a manual one since he was learning how to tell time in school.    
  
Their phone call had started late that day since Jack's hockey team had gone out for ice cream after their win, so his mother told him he could stay up an extra half hour. He didn't think his mother would lie to him, but he was going to keep an eye on the clock just to make sure she didn't try to make him go to bed before nine thirty.    
  
"Skittles taste gross if you put a lot in your mouth though," Bitty said. "So aren't M&M's better because you can eat a lot at once?"   
  
"What are you talking about?" Kent said. He sounded personally offended that Bitty didn't agree with him. Bitty felt himself smile despite it. He was familiar enough with Kent to know it was at least fifty percent him being dramatic. “Skittles taste amazing when you eat a ton at once."   
  
"I don't think you should eat a ton of either at once," Jack said. "That's really unhealthy."   
  
"Jack, please. We can't all prefer apples to can-" Kent cut off abruptly. He let out a sharp, excited sound. "It's snowing! Awesome!"   
  
"Is this your first snow?" Jack asked.    
  
"Yeah!" Kent said. His voice was muffled, like he'd pulled the phone away from his face, "Mom! It's snowing!"   
  
Bitty could hear Elise in the background, but he couldn't make out what she was saying.    
  
"It snowed here a while ago," Jack said. "Dad says we can probably play pond hockey soon. It was almost January before I got to last year, but it's colder this year and things are freezing quicker."   
  
"This is awesome," Kent said. "Mom says it won't be enough for a day off, but it should be enough for a snowball fight at recess."   
  
Bitty glanced out his window.    
  
The grass outside was just that - grass. There was no blanket of fluffy white snow or frost creeping along it. Just dry, Georgian grass.    
  
He ducked his head and uncrossed his legs so he could pull them to his chest.    
  
Usually, the phone calls made him feel closer to Kent and Jack. Sometimes, though, they made him feel further than ever.   


* * *

"Do you guys prefer strawberry or grape jelly?" Jack asked.   
  
He was sitting on a stool at the island, his legs swinging under him as he watched his mother make his pre-game PBJ. He didn't usually call Kent and Bitty before games, but Bitty was going to be spending the night at his grandmother's so his parents could go out for a date night, and Bitty's mother had wanted them to talk before she dropped him off.    
  
"I like strawberry," Kent said. Kent had a game tonight as well, but it started before Jack's and he was already on his way there. In the background, Jack could hear the roar of the highway and the music playing on the car's stereo. "Jelly's kind of stupid, though. You're supposed to make sandwiches with it but it's really hard to spread."   
  
"Crunchy peanut butter is worse," Jack said. "You can spread jelly as long as you're careful. I always rip the bread if I use crunchy peanut butter."   
  
"Why would you ever want to use crunchy peanut butter?" Kent asked. "It makes your mouth all dry."   
  
"I like crunchy peanut butter sometimes," Bitty said. "I don't really like strawberry or grape jelly though. There's a lady on my street who makes her own blackberry jam and my mom buys it from her. I like it."   
  
"I don't think I've ever had blackberry jam," Jack said.    
  
He looked up at his mother for confirmation. Her back was turned as she finished his sandwich, but she must have been a anticipating the question because she nodded her head.    
  
"I don't think I've ever had a blackberry," Kent said. "Are they good?"   
  
Bitty added, "I like them! If you eat them by hand, your fingers turn this really nice redish purple color.    
  
"My mom makes a really good fruit salad that has blackberries in it," Jack said. "Maybe she can make it at the Lake House this summer. She always buys more than she needs, so you can try eating a few by themselves, too, Kent."   
  
"That sounds nice," Kent said. "Any kind of salad that isn't green sounds nice to me."   
  
Laughter slipped past Jack's lips, soft in sound but bright in feeling.    
  
The summer was still six months away, but Jack didn't really care how long he had to wait as long as he got to be with Bitty and Kent at the end.    


* * *

Kent hurried down the school steps and over to the circular drive where he could see his father's car, parked and waiting to pick Kent up.

Instead of climbing in, he waited on the sidewalk for his father to roll down the window on the passenger's side.    
  
When he had, he folded his arms and settled them on the space before poking his head in. "Hey dad, can Hayden come home with us?"   
  
Sounding more amused than annoyed, Remy said, "Kinda seems like you already told him yes."   
  
Kent glanced over his shoulder. Hayden was standing behind him, dark brown hair spotted white where the snow had fallen on it. He had his thumbs hooked around the straps of his backpack and his eyes turned towards the ground. He was rocking between his toes and heels as he waited.    
  
"Well maybe," Kent said, turning back to his dad. "But only because he really needs a ride."   
  
"Why? Where's his mom?"   
  
"She took his little sister up to see his grandma, but ran into a traffic accident. She's at a totally stuck and she doesn't know how long it'll take her to get over here," Kent said, relaying what the rest message Hayden's mother had sent him said. "His dad can come get him, but he won't be here for an hour and he's got to go right back to work so Hayden would miss practice."   
  
Remy looked out at Hayden before saying, "Both of you get in the car before you freeze. I'll call Hayden's mom. As long as she's fine with it, I'll take you both to practice."   
  
"Awesome! I'll let him know."   
  
Kent pushed off the car, turning to tell Hayden what his father had said, but stopped when he heard him call, "And Kent?"   
  
He turned back to look at him, "Yeah, dad?"   
  
"You still have to do your homework before hockey. Hayden coming over doesn't change that."   
  
Kent groaned. He hadn't really thought he would get out of doing his homework, but having it pointed out still sucked. He nodded. "Okay."   


* * *

"Ah, shoot," Coach Bittle said, the moment they walked into the ice rink to find it packed with people. "I forgot to make sure there wasn't an event going on today."   
  
Bitty barely heard the words, transfixed by the people and the world around him.    
  
A girl his age sat on the bench wearing a black dress with long sleeves that left her shoulders bare and made her look like the living embodiment of smoke. An older woman, her mother maybe, was bent down in front of her as she laced the girls ice skates up.    
  
A boy looking only a few years older than him stood in the empty space near the booth where skates could be rented. He wore nice black pants with an Irish green shirt that clung to his chest. He had his arms held out as he practiced some kind of routine, stepping carefully in a series of spins and small jumps. The way he was moving made him look like some kind of clover being blown around by the wind.   
  
A pair of teenagers were sitting in the corner. The girl wore a dress made of oranges and reds and pinks with jewels all across her collar and waist. The boy next to her wore black pants that molded to his thighs with a bright orange shirt that had a black vest over it. They were sharing a single pair of headphones, heads tilted towards each other so their temples touched. Together they looked like a picture perfect sunset.    
  
Bitty turned, wanting to see more, and his eyes caught on the giant observation window that looked in on the main ice.    
  
He watched as the girl on the ice gathered her arms to her side and lifted her feet up. He watched as she  _ flew _ .

"Sorry, kiddo," his father said. "We'll have to come back tomorrow."   
  
"No!" Bitty exclaimed. He reached up and grabbed his dad's hand to keep him from moving. "I want to stay."   
  
"You won't be able to skate, Eric. They’re having a competition."   
  
"That's okay," Bitty said. "I just want to watch."   
  
At least for today, watching would be enough.   


* * *

Jack slipped into the locker room right behind one of the older boys on the team.    
  
That was one of the strangest things about rising up to the minor league. Last year he'd been one of the biggest kids on his little league team, but now that he was playing with fourteen and fifteen year olds who had already had their growth spurts he was one of the smallest.    
  
At the beginning of the season, it'd made it easier to slip down the ice unnoticed and put a puck in the back of the net. Now, half way through the season, the other teams had learned to watch for him and being one of the smallest just made the hits hurt more.    
  
"Matthieu!" One of the other boys called out, greeting the boy Jack had slipped in behind. "How was your break?"   
  
Jack moved to the stall he usually used and sat his bag down.    
  
"It was good," Matthieu answered. Jack heard the clap of hands smacking against shoulders. He glanced up from his bag, half unzipped, to see Matthieu was standing on the other side of the locker room and greeting practically the entire row of stalls. "Spent a few weeks playing video games and stuff, you know?"   
  
"Anything cool?"   
  
"Yes! My parents got me the latest Mortal Kombat and Splinter Cell for Christmas. You guys have got to come over sometime and see."   
  
As the group started making plans to hang out at Matthieu's house, Jack ducked his head back down and focused on unloading his gear.    
  
He didn't understand it.     
  
Matthieu had been the team's top scorer the year before, but no one seemed to resent him the way they resented Jack.    
  
He'd wracked his brain the whole season, trying to figure out what it was that separated the two of them, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't nail down the answer.    
  
He'd spent the first half of the season desperate to fix it, trying to strike up conversations with the older boys on the team as well as the ones closer to his age. But each attempt was met with some kind of confusion or rebuff. Some even with unnecessary hostility.    
  
Now, he'd stopped trying to make friends and focused on playing hockey. As long as he was playing hockey, good hockey that made feel happy and proud regardless of how his teammates felt, he could ignore how the others treated him off the ice.    
  
Or at least, he could pretend to.    


* * *

"Figure skating," Kent echoed. He was sitting on the floor in his bedroom with his back against the bed and his legs stretched out in front of him. "Not hockey?"   
  
"Kent," Jack said, his voice warning.    
  
"I'm not pushing!" Kent insisted. "Bitty doesn't have to play hockey just because we do. But he said the ice rink reminded him of us so I just assumed if he started playing a sport it would be hockey."   
  
"I like watching you guys play hockey, but it's a little rough," Bitty said. "It reminds me of football a bit."   
  
Kent's nose twitched. He wasn't quite sure if he was more upset that Bitty was comparing hockey to football, which- just no, or that Bitty was comparing a sport he loved to a sport that made Bitty miserable.    
  
"I guess I'm going to have to look up figure skating," Kent said.    
  
"Why?" Bitty asked.    
  
Kent thought the way was pretty obvious, but he explained anyway,  "I don't know anything about figure skating."   
  
"My dad knows a few figure skaters. He met them when he was in the Olympics," Jack said. "I'll get him to ask them a few questions for us."   
  
"You don't have to do that for me," Bitty objected.    
  
"We want to, though," Jack said. "You always cheer for us. We want to cheer for you, too."   
  
"Besides, figure skating looks super cool," Kent said. "My mom and I watched a bit during the Olympics. I can't imagine jumping the way some of them did and managing to land on my feet. It's super amazing."   
  
"Isn't it?" Bitty said, a sudden rush of excitement in his voice. Kent couldn't remember ever hearing Bitty this excited when he talked about football. "Only one girl fell at the competition I watched. And she just got right back up and tried it again. It was like she wasn't even worried about falling a second time. It was so cool."   
  
Kent shifted around so he was on his knees and snagged a pillow off his bed. He threw it onto the floor with him before lying down and settling in. He had a feeling he was going to be listening to Bitty talk about figure skating for a while.   


* * *

Bitty sat on the bench, unlacing his skates. His shoes sat to his side so he could change once his skates were off.    
  
"Eric." He looked up to see his teacher, a pretty young woman named Annabeth standing in front of him. She had a small smile on her face as she crouched down to his height. "Do you know if your mother or Claire's is picking you up today?"   
  
His mother had mentioned signing Bitty up for figure skating while talking to Claire's mother after school one day, and Claire's mother had decided to sign her up as well. Their moms took turns taking them to and from class.    
  
"Claire's mom is picking us up," Bitty said. Annabeth hummed quietly. She had her folded arms resting on her knees. Tentatively, Bitty asked, "Did I do something wrong, Ms. Annabeth?"   
  
He thought he was following all the rules and doing as he was told, but he didn't know why his teacher would be asking for his mother if he wasn't in trouble.    
  
"No, of course not," she said with a small shake of her head. Bitty felt a rush of relief. He really liked figure skating and he didn't want to accidently do something wrong. "I just wanted to talk to your mom about testing you for the next class level."   
  
Bitty perked up, back straightening and smile brightening, "Really?"   
  
"Really," she assured with a nod. "This class is mostly for beginners. You already knew how to do most of what I teach when you joined. I don't think you'll have any trouble moving up."   
  
"Even though I just started?"   
  
"Even though you just started," she repeated. "You're a natural on the ice, Eric, and I can tell you love it a lot. It's going to take you longer than a month to move up again - everything you'll learn in the new class is new to you, but as long as you keep working hard you'll get there."

Bitty’s chest was bursting with pride and he couldn't wait to share the news with Jack and Kent. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello again boys and gals. Still mobile, but my computer apparently had the warranty on it still and my dad shipped it to HP today!
> 
> 2) Jack's sections, once again, revolve around his parents and hockey. I sorta feel bad for not giving him any friends. 
> 
> 3) I keep writing very angsty sections for Bitty? He's seven? He doesn't deserve this turmoil?? Are his thoughts and emotions too advanced?
> 
> 4) I like writing the boys having silly conversations. I feel like at their ages, it's mostly just silly conversations and telling stories about their days. 
> 
> 5) Trying to balance the boys respective plots with their group moments and their just silly slice of life moments. Hopefully you guys like the balance. 
> 
> 6) What's your choice J on a PBJ?
> 
> 7) Do you prefer skittles or m&ms? I don't like candy so I'm not a fan of either tbh
> 
> 8) I'm not sure I like Jack's final section. I didn't write it the way I wrote the others and it feels out of place to me?
> 
> 9) That being said, the contrast between Kent's second section where he's actively inviting a friend over and Jack's third section when he feels completely alone is so painful but also my Jam™.
> 
> 10) This chapter cuts off a bit abruptly doesn't it? Sorry bout that.


	11. February 2003 - May 2003

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter is unbetaed because I'm impatient but once Rachel gets a free moment I'll replace this chapter with the betaed version! 
> 
> So!!! Beware more spelling issues than usual!

"Avery!" Claire exclaimed as she ran down the ramp and at the teenager. Bitty followed behind her as she launched herself at her soulmate.

"Hey Clairebear," Avery greeted, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. Avery was a year older than Jack and Kent, but he was shorter than both of them and didn't have nearly as much muscle either. That was mostly because Avery preferred reading books to playing sports, though. He was still a good deal bigger than Claire and Bitty. He smiled at Bitty when he saw him, "Hey, Bitty bee."

Bitty gave Avery a small smile. "Hi Avery."

Avery had been walking Claire home from school since she had started Kindergarten and Bitty had been apart of that routine for most of it.

"Guess what," Claire insisted as Avery released her from their hug.

"Mmm..." Avery hummed in thought as the three of them started walking away from the school. He gave the woman working the cross walk a small smile as they passed her. "Did you two wander into the forest during recess and forage for food because you missed the lunch bell?"

Bitty and Claire both laughed at that.

Claire shook her head while giggling, "Nope!"

"No? I'm fresh out of guesses then," Avery said. "Why don't you just tell me what you got up to today?"

"Bitty said he'd be my Valentine this year," Claire said.

"Yeah?" Avery asked, looking over at Bitty.

Bitty nodded a bit. He liked that Avery always tried to include him in conversations because there were times when Bitty was with a soulmate pair and felt completely ignored.

"Everyone in our class gets a special Valentine from their soulmate during our class party, but neither of our soulmates go to school with us," Bitty explained. "So we decided to be Valentines."

"Oh I see," Avery drew out, nodding in understanding. He looked at Claire, "So since Bitty's making you a special Valentine, do I not need to buy you a teddy bear this year?"

"No!" Claire said, shaking her head. "You still have to buy me a teddy bear just like Kent and Jack still need to make Bitty special cards! Bitty and I are just going to make each other cards for class!"

Avery laughed a bit and reached up to ruffle Claire's hair. "Okay, okay. Calm down. I promise I'll still get you a bear."

* * *

"So my mom told me to make sure everything was fine with you, Jack," Kent said.

Jack was sitting on the floor in the living room with his back against the couch and his knees popped up. He had a bowl of mac and cheese settled between his thighs and stomach.

The Penguins vs Rangers game was up on the TV in front of him. He could hear an echo of the game coming from Kent's end of the call.

"I'm fine," Jack said after swallowing a mouthful of Spongebob character noodles. "Why wouldn't I be fine?"

"I don't know." Kent added, "She was on the phone with your mom earlier, though. I think she asked her to check up on you."

"Why? It's not like this is my first time staying home alone."

"It's Valentine's Day though," Bitty pointed out. "Maybe your mom thinks you'll be lonely by yourself."

"I'm not alone though," said Jack. "You two are here with me."

"No, we're not," Kent objected.

"Not like...physically you aren't," Jack agreed. "But when we're talking it feels like your here so it's not like I'm completely alone."

There was a brief pause before Kent said, "That was really sweet, but also really dorky because you said it on Valentine's Day."

"It's true, though," Jack answered. "Why does it matter when I said it?"

"I didn't say it wasn't true," said Kent. "I just said it was dorky."

Watching as the Rangers went to shoot on screen, Jack grumbled under his breath, "Your face is dorky."

* * *

Kent was bent over tying his skate laces when someone asked, "Is there a sucker in your mouth?"

"Yeah," he said, words muffled around the candy in his mouth. He gave his laces a firm tug before looking up.

Charlie and Kurt were at their lockers, directly across from Kent. Charlie was sitting on the bench in front of his, already completely geared up, while Kurt stood next to him with his shirt off as he set his pads. Kent found it kind of amazing that Charlie was already done changing considering he and Kurt had arrived together.

"Do you have any more?" Charlie asked.

"Not on me," Kent said. "Bitty sent me a bunch of them for Valentine's Day. The rest are at my house."

"Your soulmate bought you a gift?" Charlie craned his head up to look at Kurt, "You didn't get me a gift."

"Nope," Kurt agreed. He turned his back to Charlie as he reached to take his jersey out of locker. "My dad did take us to see a movie though."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't even share your popcorn with me," Charlie argued.

"I don't share popcorn with you because I don't get any if I do. You eat it all," Kurt answered.

"You get some," Charlie argued.

"You're right. I usually get at least one handful before you pig-out."

As Charlie and Kurt continued their bickering, Kent turned his head down and focused on tying his other skate.

Charlie and Kurt were really the only soulmate pair Kent knew that were around his age, there were a few in his school but no one he actually talked to, and he wondered if his relationship with his soulmates would be like that if he lived near them.

He wondered what it would be like to have Jack and Bitty by his side for more than just three months of the year.

* * *

"Oh," Jack said when he entered the video call. He blinked several times as he glanced between Kent and Bitty. "You guys have flowers."

Bitty smiled a bit, one hand reaching up to touch the small wild flower behind his ear. "Claire and I picked them at recess today. There's wildflowers all over the playground."

"Mines fake," Kent said with a shrug. "I thought Bitty's was cool so I broke one of the ones mom had in the living room."

"You _broke_  it?" Jack questioned. "Why didn't you just grab the whole thing?"

"Because then I would have had like eight inches of stem sticking out behind my ear and it'd look stupid." Kent added, "You should find a flower too. Then we'll all match."

Jack sucked his bottom lip in, biting down on the edge. For a moment, Bitty thought he was going to say no.

Instead, Jack said, "My mom usually keeps flowers on our table. I'll go grab one of those."

* * *

Jack was sitting at his desk with his textbook opened to the page with the homework problems and a piece of lined paper with the beginning of said homework jotted down when he heard a loud sigh from next to him.

He glanced over to see one of classmates had his book open to the answers in the back and was furiously erasing something from a piece of paper.

The other boy must have felt Jack looking at him, because he glanced up. Jack felt his face heat, embarrassed to have been caught looking.

Before he could duck his head and look away, the boy gave a slightly bitter smile and said, "I got the wrong answer again. I've got no idea what I'm doing here."

It was a clear cry for help.

Jack's throat felt dry and his stomach turned.

He'd never really talked to this kid before, they'd exchanged pleasantries or smiles before class but they didn't really talk, and Jack didn't want toe tend an offer to help only to mess up.

He was just about to turn his head back to his own assignment, ignoring the boy instead of offering his help, when he thought about Bitty being in the same situation.

He'd been nervous about helping Bitty with his homework the first time he'd asked, but he'd done it and Bitty said he'd helped a lot.

"Um," Jack said, forcing the words out around the lump in his throat. "I could try to help you if you want?"

"Really?" the boy asked, voice bright and excited. "That'd help so much! Thanks!"

Jack took a deep breath as the boy shuffled his desk closer to Jack's and flipped his textbook back to the problem.

He could do this. He was good at math and he knew how to teach it to someone.

"Can we start on problem fourteen?" His classmate asked. "I did the first few okay, but these ones aren't making any sense to me."

"It's um...a different formula," Jack explained, a little hesitant. He tapped his pencil against the textbook as he tried to show what he meant, "You use this one for 3-9, but this one for 14-20."

* * *

Kent was standing at the trunk of his parents car, waiting for his father to unlock it so he could grab his hockey bag from the back, when his mother said, "Kent. Someone's here to see you."

Caught between confusion as to why someone would be visiting him in the ice arenas parking lot and confusion about the strange tone she was using, his only response was to meet her eyes over the trunk of the car and ask, "What?"

She raised a finger, pointing behind him.

Kent twisted around to see Jamie's black Ford Taurus parked a few spaces away from them. Jamie was standing next to the car while Angelica was climbing out of the passengers seat. When Jamie noticed Kent looking at him, a smile bloomed across his face and he lifted a hand in a hello.

"Can I go say hi?" Kent questioned.

After a few months of meeting up with Jamie - and occasionally Angelica - a couple of times a week, he'd grown to like them both. It made him happy that they'd come out for his game.

His mom flicked a gaze out at the car. Her lips pursed for a moment, then she nodded her head. "Go ahead. Only for a minute though. You're father isn't carrying your bag in for you."

"Okay!" He didn't waste any time in turning and jogging over to Jamie. He skidded to a stop in front of him, looking up at him with a bright smile. "Hi!"

Jamie reached out and ruffled Kent's blonde locks. "Hey kiddo."

  
He glanced over at Angelica, who was leaning against the passengers door with her arms folded on top of the car. "Hi, Angelica."

  
"Hello Kent," she greeted, giving him a small smile. "You know, this is my first hockey game. I'm really excited to see you play."

  
"I'm really glad you made it," Kent said.

  
"Me too." Jamie added, "I'm sorry it took us until the end of the season to come see a game."

  
"It's okay," Kent said with a shrug. "You can come to more next year."

Jamie's smile softened. "Yeah. Absolutely."

Back behind Angelica, Kent spotted his coach's pick up truck pulling into the parking lot.

"I should go back to mom," Kent said. "I still have to take my stuff to the locker room and change."

"That's fine. We don't want to make you late." Before Kent could move though, Jamie said, "Do you want to come out for ice cream with Angelica and I after the game?"

"Yeah!" Kent agreed with a fierce nod. "As long as mama says I can!"

"I'll ask her before the game starts," Jamie promised. He ruffled Kent's hair a second time. "Go grab your bag. We'll see you after the game, regardless of what your mom says about ice cream."

"And good luck!" Angelica added. "We'll be cheering for you!"

* * *

Bitty was standing on a stool in the kitchen, with only a month to go until his eighth birthday he was more than tall enough to reach the top of the counter but the stool made it easier to reach the high shelves, while he looked down at an open cook book.

  
"Alright, baby," his mother said. He looked behind him to see her coming into the kitchen, pulling her hair up as she walked. She didn't usually leave him alone in the kitchen, but he'd used the last of the soap in the kitchen so she'd ran to the bathroom to wash her hands. "Did you pick out what you want to make?"

"Yup!" Bitty chirped, bright and happy. Baking together had been something his mother and him did almost constantly when he was younger, but now that he was in school it'd been pushed back to Saturday afternoons only. They were a highlight of his week, right up there with pretty much every phone call he had with Jack and Kent. "Can we try the lemon and elderflower drizzle cake?"

She hummed, quiet and thoughtful. She situated herself next to him, grabbing the bottom of the cookbook and tugging it towards her to get a better look.

Most of the time they didn't use a recipe, but sometimes Bitty wanted to try something new so they'd pull a book out and look until something caught their eye.

"I think we have all of this," she said, nodding a bit as she scanned the page. "You have to be careful when measuring the cordial though. I didn't buy a very big bottle and we won't be able to get another."

"I'll be super careful," Bitty declared. He held his hands out for her, "Steady hands!"

She laughed, gathering his hands in hers and kissing his knuckles. She agreed, "The steadiest hands!" As he giggled, she pressed another kiss to his fingers before letting go. "Alright, let's get working or it won't be done in time for you to tell Jack and Kent about it."

* * *

When Jack came down the stairs, dressed in loose jeans and a tee-shirt he could change out of easily, he found his dad turning around the living room muttering, "Keys, keys, keys."

"Keys," his mother said. Jack looked behind him to see his mother standing at the top of the stairs dressed in jeans and sweatshirt with his teams logo on it. His fathers keys, identified by the Stanley cup keychain he had hanging off them, hung off her finger.

"Keys!" His father exclaimed, throwing his hands up when he saw her. "Where were they?"

"On the nightstand," she answered. "I grabbed them since I was pretty sure you would be down here trying to find them."

"You know me so well," he said, lips tilting up in a smile that was equal parts amusement and affection.

She shrugged one shoulder before tossing them down at him. His father caught them in cupped hands.

"What about you, mon pengouin?" A smile blossomed across Jack's face at the pet name. It wasn't the one his mother used often, reserving it mostly for situations where he was acting like his father. He liked it a lot. "Do I have to go find something for you as well? Or are you ready to go?"

"I'm ready, maman," Jack said. "I just need to grab my hockey bag from the closet."

"Go ahead then," she said, gesturing her head towards the doorway that lead that way. "Before your father sets his keys down and we have to spend thirty minutes looking for them."

"That's just rude," his father said. "It wouldn't take me any longer than ten minutes to look down at the coffee table."

Jack hopped down the stairs, listening to his parents warm and familiar banter as he went.

* * *

"Do we have to watch this?" Kent asked. He was sitting cross legged on the couch with a bowl of popcorn in his lap.

  
It was a Friday night which meant all three boys got to stay up a little later then they normally did and their parents didn't mind if they talked a bit longer, so they liked to watch movies together. Usually they all rented the same movie from the video store, but it was Bitty's turn to pick the movie and Disney Channel was showing a rerun of Cadet Kelly.

"Yes," Jack said, voice firm. He reasoned, "It's Bitty's turn so we're watching what he wants."

"Okay but I've seen this movie like five times in the past three months. It's always on."

"I can choose something else," Bitty said.

His voice was so soft and so his words so hesitant that Kent instantly felt like a jerk. Bitty never complained about what Kent wanted to watch - except for that one time when Kent wanted to watch a movie that was rated PG-13 even though Bitty wasn't supposed to watch those without his parents - so he felt bad for complaining about Bitty's choice.

"No," Kent said, shaking his head even though Bitty couldn't see it. "It's okay. I don't mind watching it again."

"Are you sure?" Bitty asked.

"Yeah. I haven't watched it with you guys yet, so it'll be different then the other times I saw it."

* * *

"Mama," Bitty said, walking into the dining room where his parents were sitting with the members of his family that had arrived at his birthday party early. "Can I move the presents for later in your bedroom? I don't want them to get mixed in with the rest and end up opening them by accident."

"I don't think that's likely to happen," his mother said with a small life. "But if that's what you want, then go ahead."

As Bitty turned and went back into then living room, he heard his aunt Patty ask, "You aren't letting him open all of his presents this afternoon? Isn't that a bit cruel?"

"Not really," his mother answered. "Besides, the presents we're opening are the ones from his soulmate and their families. We do a video call after the party and celebrate amongst ourselves."

Reaching the table where the presents were stacked, Bitty searched for the ones he knew were from Kent, Jack, and their parents.

"All of you? Not just the boys?" Patty asked.

"Of course all of us," his mother said. She sounded a little amused as she added, "Alicia would be horrified if she didn't get to see Bitty's reaction to the figure skating bag she and Bob got for him. She spent a whole day going from shop to shop looking for the perfect one. She ended up ordering a customized one for him."

Bitty eyes widened a bit and latched onto the shiny gold foil wrapping paper that he knew was the present from Alicia and Bob. He'd been asking his parents for a proper bag for his skating gear, but he thought he was going to have to wait until Christmas.

"That's a lot of hassle to go through," aunt Patty remarked.

Bitty heard his father laugh, the sound deep and bellowing. "That's nothing. I had to go into the middle of New York City the Friday before the fourth of July to get Kent this set of Nerf guns he wanted for his birthday last summer. It was horrible." He added, voice still ringing with laughter, "It was worth it though. He had so much fun with those things. He spent the rest of the summer trying to get Jack and Eric to put on these elaborate sneak attacks."

"You guys are close then?" Benny, one of Bitty older cousins, asked. "Even though they live so far?"

"Of course we're close." His father sounded a bit put off that someone would suggest otherwise.

"We're family," his mother said, voice sure and confident. "Us and the boys and their parents."

* * *

"I think I grew again," Jack said with a sigh. He was sitting at the desk in the office, video calling with Kent and Bitty on the desktop. His knees and shins hurt, aching the same way they always seemed to now days, so he had his legs stretched out.

"Well, stop that," Kent said. Jack glanced up, shooting a look at him. Kent held his hands up in surrender, though his face was unapologetic. "I'm just saying! With the rate your going, we're not all gonna fit on the bed this summer."

"Well, you aren't growing so it doesn't matter how much I do," Jack shot back.

"I grew three inches this year!" Kent argued.

"You're still under a hundred and fifty centimeters!"

Kent huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, I'm sorry we can't all hit five feet in our first growth spurt."

"I don't understand why we're arguing," Bitty said before Jack could retort. "I haven't grown any, so there's still plenty of room on the bed. We had lots of spare room last summer."

"Kent's just jealous that I'm taller then he is," Jack said, grinning a bit.

"I don't care," Kent said. Jack knew it was a lie because Kent had been complaining about his height since his last physical. "I'm sure I'll be taller then you once I hit my second growth spurt."

"Why does it matter if Jack's taller than you?" Bitty questioned. "Both of you are taller than me and I don't care."

"We're older than you," Kent insisted. "We're supposed to be taller than you."

As he listened to Kent try to convince Bitty that it really did matter that Jack was taller than him, Jack thought about how he really couldn't wait for the summer to start so he could be with them in person again.

* * *

"So, your mom told me that you were going away for the summer," Jamie said.

The two of them were at the house that Jamie shared with Angelica. Kent had been over a few times now. It was different from the place his mother and father shared, the decorations were a bit more minimal and the only photo on the wall was a photo from their wedding, but he liked it.

"Yup!" Kent said. They were sitting at the kitchen table eating the ramen noodles Jamie had made them for lunch. "We always spend summer vacation at the Lake House with Jack and Bitty and their parents! It's tons of fun."

"It sounds like fun," Jamie agreed. "That means that this'll be the last time I see you for a few months." He leaned over slightly, bumping his shoulder against Kent's, "I'm gonna miss you."

Kent looked down at his bowl, frowning as he spun his noodles around his fork. He'd been so focused on the fact that he was going to be seeing Jack and Bitty that he hadn't really thought about the fact that he wouldn't see Jamie or Angelica until he got back. Now that he was thinking about it, he realized that he was going to miss them a lot while he was gone.

"I'm going to see you when I get back right?" he asked, eyes still focused on his bowl. There was an undercurrent of worry in his stomach, like leaving would erase the past few months and it would just be him and his mother and father when he got back.

"Of course you will," Jamie said. "Right away if you want."

Kent forced himself to look over at Jamie, "Really?"

"Yeah," Jamie agreed. "I'll even talk to your mom and we can see about you spending a weekend here once you get back." There was a small pause before he added, "If you want. You don't have to."

"I want to," Kent said.

"Okay then. I'll call your mom before you guys leave so that she can think about it over the summer." He bumped their shoulders together a second time, "Now finish eating. I promised your mom I'd send you back with your homework done, but if you finish quick enough we should be able to play another game of Mario Party before you finish."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Thought the last chapter would be the final mobile one, but it's still not here so ╮(╯▽╰)╭
> 
> 2) This chapter is a bit longer for the purposes of getting through May and into the summer. 
> 
> 3)I love writing other soulmate pairs so I took advantage of Valentine's Day in this chapter. Hopefully you guys liked seeing the dynamics other pairs have as well. 
> 
> 4) The Penguins and Rangers did actually play on Valentine's Day 2003. The Rangers won with the only point in the game. 
> 
> 5) I think Kent is probably a lot more bothered by his inability to be near his soulmate then Jack and Bitty are. None of them are happy about it, but I see Kent as the most extroverted one and the one who would want physical affection the most. 
> 
> 6) Anxiety is horrible and it never really goes away? But for me doing something I'm familiar with is a lot easier then something new. Hence Jacks second section.
> 
> 7) not sure if this is universal - but in America (at least where I live in America) math textbooks have the answers to the odd numbered questions in the back. 
> 
> 8) Some of you are so suspicious of Kent's dad. I promise you that while he's fucked up a lot and he's certainly not winning any parent of the eyes awards, he's not out to ruin Kent's life either? 
> 
> 9) This fic does not have nearly enough baking in it considering it involves Bitty. 
> 
> 10) I really like writing the relationship between Jack's parents and the relationship between Jack and either of them? There's definitely more of them then either other set of parents - especially Bitty since his father rarely pops up - and hope none of you are finding the balance weird?
> 
> 11) I think as a kid, and as a man, Jack has a lot of affection and respect for his dad so he'd like being compared to him. I think he probably doesn't even mind it so much when it comes to hockey. It's just how often people do it and the expectation of it that breaks him? If that makes sense?
> 
> 12) What's your favorite Disney channel movie? I always really liked the Zenon movies and Eddies Million Dollar Bake Off. 
> 
> 13) I think that while the boys meeting was orchestrated by Suzanne so they could have a childhood like hers, the way things work for them is also very very different then the way people are used to since the boys know each other but don't live close enough to live in each others pockets like most soulmate their age do. So Suzanne's family, whose used to a certain sort of behavior in this situation, would be thrown by the way the boys do things. 
> 
> 14) Kent's relationship with his father moves fast, but that's because I feel like six months of seeing someone bi-or-tri weekly would lead to a close relationship developing quickly?


	12. June 2003 - August 2003

The table was roaring with noise as the group settled in for their first dinner at the summer house.

They'd all been there for most of the day, but there'd been a lot that needed to be done in order to get the house set up. Cleaning and unpacking didn't exactly loan itself to conversation.

So now that everyone was gathered in one place, they were catching up on everything that had happened over the year. As often as everyone spoke, the boys were the only ones who spoke daily but their parents had conversations fairly frequently, it wasn't quite the same as when they were in the same place.

Kent sat on one side of the large table with Bitty to his right, Jack on Bitty's otherside, and listened to the chatter. He could hear his mother talking to Suzanne about Jamie. He could hear Bob and Coach Bittle talking about football and hockey. He could hear his father telling Bitty to eat some brussel sprouts if he wanted to grow taller.

More important than what he could hear, though, was what he could see. Because he could see the way Bitty looked at the brussel sprouts on the table, disgust and consideration at war on his face. Because he could see the way Jack was angled towards his father as he tried to pick up every sliver of hockey news that was spoken. Because he could see the two of them in person again.

There was no distortion to the red color on Bitty's cheek and no grainy quality to Jack's pressed lips as he focused.

Being here with Bitty's leg pressed against his and Jack visible over the top of Bitty's head was amazing.

He never felt anything other then lucky and blessed on his first day at the Summer House and this year was no different. 

* * *

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea anymore," Jack said, voice cutting through the silence in the kitchen. The three boys had snuck out of their basement bedroom and upstairs despite having been sent to bed hours ago. "I mean what if we get caught?

The room was almost pitch black, the exception being the area where the moonlight shined in through the window and streaked across the counters.

Bitty found it a little unsettling to see this kitchen so still, with so many people in the house during the summers there was almost always someone looking for a snack or getting a drink, and he moved a little closer to Jack. The older boy glanced at him before grabbing Bitty's hand.

It didn't quite chase away the fear, but it made Bitty feel at least a little braver.

"It's not gonna matter if we get caught," Kent said. He had crossed the room without them. He brushed his hand against the wall and flicked the light switch on. "Our parents let us stay up late all the time in the summer."

"Not this late," Jack argued. "And not without permission."

"And," Bitty said, "they never let us have sugar this late."

"If you guys are going to complain, why'd you even come up here with me?" Kent asked. Bitty watched as Kent moved from the light switch to the fridge, pulling it open to grab a carton of ice cream from inside. "I didn't make you."

Which was, technically, true.

Kent hadn't made Bitty follow him up the stairs, he'd just made an absent comment about wanting something sweet than rolled out of bed to go get it.

Jack and Bitty had followed because that was what they did in the summers. They stayed with each other at all times to make up for the times they didn't see each other.

Bitty looked back at the hallway behind them, remembering when he and his friends had tried to sneak around past bedtime at the beginning of the school year, before taking a step forward. Jack followed behind him, their hands still wrapped together.

"Can we use the cookies from the jar to make our sandwiches?" Bitty requested. "They taste better than the packaged ones."

Kent set the ice cream carton on the counter before sending Bitty a bright, toothy smile. "Of course!"

The combination of Jack's hand in his and Kent's smile was enough to melt away the last of Bitty's concern.

He tugged Jack the rest of the way towards the counter. "We need the ice cream scooper. Where is it?"

They were so focused on constructing their ice cream sandwiches that none of them noticed Bob showing up in the doorway. He took one look at the three of them, leveraging ice cream out of the carton to slather between cookies and laughing quietly, before turning to go back upstairs.

He'd come back down in an hour or so just to make they actually went back to bed, but right now he didn't think there was any harm in letting them spend some more time together. 

* * *

Jack woke up feeling groggy and disoriented.

Opening his eyes, he realized he'd fallen asleep under the tree in the front lawn. Even though he was tucked into the shade, his face was warm from the summer sunshine. There was a soft breeze rolling through the air that kept him from getting too overheated.

He could feel a heavy weight on his legs and another leaning against his side.

When he roused himself to look at them he found Kent was curled up on the grass with his head on Jack's lap while Bitty was leaning against him with his head on Jack's shoulder.

They'd been inside for most of the morning, but Remy had kicked them out when it became clear Kent had just a little too much energy. They'd spent the late morning and early afternoon switching between games, they'd played two touch and a few rounds of tag and street hockey with the net in the garage, before sitting down to relax for a bit, but Jack couldn't remember any of them falling asleep.

He remembered closing his eyes, feeling the breeze whistle through his hair and listening to Kent and Bitty converse, and the feeling of content that had washed over him. Moments like these with Kent and Bitty always felt good, like something he'd been missing all year had finally clicked into place.

Jack was pulled out of his thoughts by Kent letting out a soft sound and shifting around.

"Hey," Jack said, reaching the hand Bitty wasn't leaning against out to smooth Kent's bangs back. he wasn't entirely sure if Kent was actually awake or just moving in his sleep, something he did fairly frequently. Regardless, he whispered, "Everything's fine. You can go back to sleep."

Jack was content with being the only one awake, watching over the two of them and making sure nothing happened while they slept. 

* * *

The backyard was filled with noise.

There were two plastic tables set up in the grass.

One of them was covered in food, a row of Kent's favorites leading up to a two tiered cake. The cake was mostly white with thin red and blue lines on the top and bottom of both tiers. The effect was a vague resemblance to the hem and collar of the New York Rangers away jerseys. On top of the cake was a candle shaped like two crossed hockey sticks. Nestled under the table with all the food was a collection of presents, some were wrapped in patterned paper and some were inside of gift bags with tissue paper sticking out the top.

The second table had a set of plastic chairs around it for everyone to sit in when they decided to eat, but right then everyone was running around the backyard playing soccer.

"This is cheating!" Bob screeched, though his voice was amused, as Bitty and Jack both latched onto his legs to keep him from kicking the ball further up the makeshift field.

"This is strategic playing," Suzanne corrected as she kicked the ball away from him.

Even though she was taking the ball from his team Kent couldn't feel anything but bright amusement and happiness. Birthdays were always fun at the Lake House, so much so that sometimes he felt bad that he and Jack couldn't have the same kind of celebration for Bitty, but this was a milestone for him - thirteen - and everything felt so much brighter this year.

He was about to chase after Suzanne when he heard the crunch of tires in the driveway.

When he looked up, he found Jamie's car was rolling towards the house.

"Your mom called him." Kent looked over his shoulder to find his father standing behind him. They were on opposite teams, but his father had come to a stop near him. Kent was a little surprised to hear that his mother had been the one to call Jamie since it was usually his father that interacted with him, answering the door when he was there to pick Kent up and letting him know when Kent needed to be back. "She thought that he'd missed enough of your birthdays. Why don't you go say hi? We'll go get the food ready and you can introduce him to Jack and Bitty while we eat."

* * *

"Bitty! You should show us a few tricks!"

Bitty had been hovering near the edges of the ice rink, humming while he flipped between skating backwards and forwards and making small figure eights, as Kent and Jack practiced their face offs in the middle of the ice. Bob had been dropping and chasing the puck for them, laughing as the two boys attempted to trash talk each other and giving them tips on their chirping.

When he turned around now though, having been skating with his back to the group, he found Bob had stepped off the ice while Jack and Kent were standing in the face off circle. Kent was leaning into his stick, one hand over the other on the top and his chin resting on them, while Jack held his horizontally.

"You want to see a trick?" Bitty said, a little surprised. Jack and Kent had been supportive of Bitty's figure skating, listening to his talk about it for hours after practices or watching when he wanted to practice while they were out, but they had never actively asked for him to show them something.

"Yeah!" Kent said with a jerk of his head that was likely intended to be a nod.

"We like watching you skate," Jack said. "Dad went to answer his phone and probably won't be back in for a while, so we've got lots of time for you to show us stuff."

Feeling happy and proud that they wanted to see him skate, Bitty gave a small nod. "Okay. I'll show you the jump I've been working on." 

* * *

"Can we go to the movies today?" Kent said as he and Jack entered the kitchen.

Both of Kent's parents had left for work already, but both Zimmermann's and Bittle's were sitting at the table with their breakfasts.

"Well good morning to you too," Coach Bittle remarked, looking amused as he lifted his eyes from the newspaper he was reading and glanced at them.

"Good morning," Jack said, his voice soft. He was too nervous to speak much louder. His stomach was churning and, even though he was taller, he was standing behind Kent as though he could somehow hide behind him.

"No Bitty?" his mother asked, looking over their shoulders at the stairway that lead to the basement. Jack understand why his mother expected Bitty to be there since the three of them always came up stairs together. But Jack and Kent hadn't really wanted to get his hopes up.

"He's still asleep," Kent said. "So can we go to the movies today?"

There was a moment of silence as the four adults exchanged looks. It was his father who spoke at last, asking, "Alright, what are you two up to?"

"Up to? We're not up to anything," Jack said. Next to him, Kent let out a heavy sigh and he knew that it'd come out too squeaky to sound as casual as he'd meant for it to be. It was just further confirmed by the fact that his father just raised one, unimpressed eyebrow.

"We want to go see Pirates of the Carribean," Kent said, obviously thinking there was no point in trying to hide their plans when Jack had given them up so easily.

"Okay...?" Bob said, drawing the word out. "Why are you trying to be all sneaky about it?"

"Because it's a PG-13 movie," Suzanne said, answering for them. "Now isn't it boys?"

"Yes ma'am," Jack said. "We thought it would be okay since Kent's thirteen now and my birthdays next week."

Coach Bittle raised an eyebrow as well before asking, "You know Bitty's only eight, right?"

"Yes," Kent said. There was a note of exasperation to his voice. "But we'll be there too! So if it's too much for him we can help him!"

There was a moment of silence as the adults shared another look.

After a moment, Suzanne suggested, "Why don't you boys find something else to do today and we'll think about it? If we decide it's okay for Bitty to watch the movie than you can go see it tomorrow."

Kent opened his mouth like he was going to argue, so Jack slapped a hand over Kent's mouth.

"Okay. Thank you," Jack said, because it was a perfectly reasonable request and his Kent opened his giant mouth they weren't even going to consider letting the three of them go to the movie. "We're gonna go back downstairs now and wait for Bitty to wake up."

Jack grabbed Kent's wrist with his free hand and pulled him towards the stairs, studiously ignoring the way Kent kept licking his hand. 

* * *

"I can't believe you wanted to spend your birthday fishing," Kent said. He was sitting in a chair on the deck of the boat wearing nothing but swimming trunks that were painted in an array of neon flowers. A pair of sunglasses, black with a single streak of gold through the arms, were pushed up onto his head instead of resting on his nose. "We could've done something cool, Jack!"

"I think fishing is cool," Jack answered without looking at him. He had a line cast out over the boats edge and was focused on watching it bob. "And I can't go fishing a lot once I go back home because school will be starting up and I won't have time to go to the lake."

Kent pursed his lips together for just a moment and felt a flash of annoyance run through his chest. He didn't understand why Jack had to bring that up now. He didn't understand why Jack had to direct his thoughts towards the fact that they didn't have more than a week together left together when they were supposed to be having a good time and celebrating.

Kent found the fishing kind of boring and he was going to complain about it, but more than any of that he was just happy to be sitting here with Jack.

Before Kent could open his mouth to speak Bitty, who was seated on Jack's otherside, said, "I don't think I want to fish either. Taking the hook out makes me feel sick. Do you want to play a card game or something, Kent?"

"Yeah," Kent said with a nod. "Sounds better then watching the water at least."

* * *

"Mama, can I bake a pie for tonight?"

His mother had been looking at a pot as she stirred the contents of it, but now she glanced up to look at Bitty. He stood in the entry way to the kitchen dressed in shorts and a hoodie that was a few sizes too big on him.

"You can," she said. "But wouldn't you rather spend the day with Jack and Kent? We're leaving in the morning."

"I like cooking for them though," Bitty said. "It always makes me feel good when Kent likes something I make or when Jack eats sweets because I made them even though he likes to be really healthy. I wanted to make something for them one more time before I didn't get to see them for another year."

She was quiet for a moment, something soft and sad settling on her face. "You know what, I think that's a really good idea. Why don't you tell me what you want to make and we can see if we have the ingredients? If we don't, we can go out and buy them."

"Can we make a maple-apple pie?" Bitty asked. "Because Jack really liked maple crusted pies, but Kent really likes apple pie. So maybe if we do both then they'll both really, really like it?"

"I think that's a perfect idea," his mother agreed. "Why don't you start checking for the ingredient you need and I'll get you down some pans and mixing bowls."

"Okay mama," Bitty agreed.

He crossed the room, moving from the doorway to the refrigerator, with a bit of a spring in his step.

He was sad that this was going to be his last night with Jack and Kent for a while, but at least he could do this for them before they had to separate. 

* * *

Jack sat in the window seat on the airplane. He had his head tilted so his temple rested against the glass.

"How are you feeling, baby?" his mother asked, reaching over and setting her hand on Jack's thigh.

Jack was feeling a million things in that moment. He felt like he was going to cry because he loved Canada but he'd rather stay in New York if it meant staying with Bitty and Kent. He felt like he was going to cry because he already felt awkward and out of place without Bitty and Kent there with him. He felt like he was going to cry because everything hurt and made him feel sick.

"I'm fine," he told his mother. He turned his head so he was looking at her and gave her a small, sad smile. "I just miss them."

"I know," his mother said. She squeezed his knee before letting go. "But the year will fly by and before you know it you'll be here with them again."

Jack didn't tell her that the year never flew by for him. Jack didn't tell her how every day seemed to drag by at a brutally slow pace, taunting him with how much time there was before he got to see them again. Jack didn't tell her how the only part of his day that went by too fast were the parts that he spent on the phone with Bitty and Kent.

Instead he just nodded and set his head back down. "Yeah. I guess so."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello!! Guess who is a) at college and b) back on a computer? This girl!! So yeah, I haven't started real classes yet so I'm not sure how the update schedule will be effected but I'll keep an eye on it and let you know! Not that this is relevant to my writing this story - but I moved back two timezones? So those of you who are used to getting these at a certain time wont be getting them at that time anymore! Also that because I'm not updating at 3am when I have classes at noon so. I hope an update that occurs earlier than 3am won't mess anyone up. 
> 
> 2) Headcanon for this story - there are soulmates who function as individuals and soulmates who function as a pair (or group). It's not indicative of the strength of the bond, just of the way his manifests. So the boys parents are pretty much all individuals, but then there's Kent's teammates Kurt and Charlie who function as a pair and, later on, Holster and Ransom. Their capable of being individuals, but they function best as a team you know? I think the boys are, ultimately, a group that functions as individuals, but right now their at this weird stage where they're separated constantly so they cling when they're together and function as a group. I hope that makes sense?? Let me know if my explanation here is completely shit or if you have a differing opinion. I'd love to hear! 
> 
> 3) Right now, I feel like a lot of things Kent does revolve around hockey and I feel like it totally would? He has other hobbies - I've mentioned before that he liked video games and stuff - but I think hockey is the one thing that both he and Jack are /obsessed/ with and it takes priority over all else. That being said - I have something in mind for when Kent gets a bit older that's going to take over as Kent's greatest hobby when hockey becomes more of a job? Which - obviously - doesn't stop Kent from loving hockey, just puts it in a different place in his heart if that makes sense? 
> 
> 4) So initially, Kent wasn't going to see his dad all summer but then I considered how Jamie would feel missing Kent's first birthday since they started talking? Especially when that birthday is a milestone for most kids? Like, in the scheme of things 13 isnt a big deal but it is to a kid you know? So instead I had him visit for Kent's birthday party even though the Summer House is definitely not a place he'll be a lot. 
> 
> 5) I think that while before the boys main emotion when separating was sadness - Kent is at an age where he's also becoming very bitter bout it despite how happy and generally good of a kid he is? He's upset that he's been put in this position where he only sees the mostly important people to him for three months out of the year. 
> 
> 6) I meant to finish this last night because I only had Jack and Bitty's final sections but then it was 11:30 and I was exhausted for some reason?
> 
> 7) Here's a question which doesn't relate specifically to this chapter but to future ones: how old were you when you had your first kiss? 
> 
> 8) Tried to show a bit of maturity in Kent and Jack's thought processes. Hopefully that worked out.


	13. September 2003 - November 2003

Jack was settled at his desk with his legs folded under him. He had his textbook open on his keyboard, a piece of notebook paper tucked between the open pages, and a pencil in his fingers.

When he glanced up at the video call open on his laptop screen, he could see Kent and Bitty in similar positions. Bitty was bent over a worksheet, chewing on his bottom lip as he worked, while Kent had a textbook just like Jack. There was a soft stream of music coming from Kent's end, playing through the top twenty for that week.

They weren't usually allowed to do their homework together. Their parents didn't place many restrictions on their calls, but finishing their homework before they talked was one of the few. However, they'd been more lenient about it since finding out that Jack often helped Bitty with his.

Originally they'd only been allowed to do their homework together after Bitty had attempted his, but after a while they'd reached the point they were at now were they could start doing their homework together and they could all ask questions whenever they needed to.

Jack liked it.

Not just because Kent was usually pretty helpful, most of what they were studying was basically the same, but because he found it easier to focus when Bitty and Kent were around. It'd always been that way. It was easier for him to get into a book he was reading or a game he was playing when they were at the summer house and he found feel Kent's shoulder bumping against his or Bitty's knee digging into his thigh.

Even if he couldn't physically feel them, just being able to glance up from a problem to see Kent and Bitty made it easier for him to think about what he was doing. He wasn't sure if it was because he just generally found their presence focusing or if it was because he liked being able to immediately know that they were both okay or if it was just that he wasn't anticipating being able to talk to them afterwards.

Whatever it was, Jack had found algebra was a lot easier to understand when he was working on it while talking to Kent and Bitty. 

* * *

Kent glanced around the room as he stepped inside.

There was a small drop, no more then three or four inches, about halfway into the room that gave the space the appearance that it had two levels. Both levels had shiny wooden flooring and a dark blue color painted onto the walls.

The top level contained a large bed with a blue and red stripped cover over it. Tucked under the bed was a large circular red rug. Shoved into the corner next to the door, and in a position that someone lying on their side in the bed would be facing it, was a black dresser with a TV on top of it. At the foot of the bed was black shelving system with the shelves inside of it designed in an almost maze like quality. There weren't much on the shelves, just a small wooden K in the center that had been painted in red and blue strips. Pushed against the wall opposite the foot of the bed was a black dark with a spinning leather chair.

The bottom level was almost completely empty. The only furniture in that space was a small hockey net that leaned against the windows that stretched the entirety of the far wall.

"Do you like it?" Kent turned to see Angelica standing in the doorway behind him. She was smiling, but there was a slight nervous edge to it. "We used Rangers colors since you like them so much, but we can change it if you want. And I know it's not a full sized hockey net, but I thought you could still use it to practice your shots when you can't go out. The windows are plexi-glass, so you should be fine to shoot at them without worrying about breaking them. And I know there's not much in here, but we wanted to let you do most of the decorating yourself...." She trailed off as if torn between pointing out more flaws he could find in the room and letting him come to his own decision.

Kent was quiet for another moment as he let his eyes roam around the room again.

It was different from his room at the house he shared with his mother and father, but it also felt like this room meant more. He loved his mom and dad, but he had never really questioned whether they wanted him around.

The fact that Jamie and Angelica had gone through the trouble of not only buying him furniture, but of painting and setting up a room for him even though he wasn't going to be staying there more than a weekend or two a month said a lot.

"I love it," Kent said at last, turning so he could flash Angelica a wide smile. Her own lips settled into a soft grin, responding to his obvious pleasure even if she didn't fully understand what it was that he was so happy about. "It's perfect."

* * *

Bitty stood in his fathers office with his hands clasped behind his back. He twisted his fingers around each other as he cleared his throat. "Coach."

Coach Bittle looked up from the playbook he'd been examining. A small smile spread over his lips at the sight of his son, but that didn't do much to ease the nerves churning in Bitty's gut. "Hey"

"Can I talk to you?" Bitty asked.

"Sure." He put the book in his hands down on the desk and turned his chair so he was facing him. His body language was all open and accepting, but Bitty still felt a horrible weight resting in his gut. "What's up kiddo?"

Bitty was quiet for a moment. He took a deep breath before saying, "I don't want to go to football signups this year."

His father hummed in consideration. "You don't? I thought you liked hanging around signs up with me so you could see who else was joining the team?"

"I do, but it doesn't feel right to go to sign ups when I don't want to sign up for football this year," Bitty said, speaking in one big rush in order to force the words out. He watched as his father's lips turned down in a frown. Though the words were out, the nerves in his stomach were only growing and Bitty blurted out, "It's just that figure skating is a year long sport and I really want to concentrate on that."

"That's...." Coach Bittle declared. "That's fine, kiddo. If you don't want to play football anymore, you don't have to."

"Thank you, coach," Bitty said.

Normally double checked that it was really okay, but Bitty ducked out of the room without another word. Mostly it was because he got the feeling that his father wasn't okay with him dropping football and he didn't want to give him an opportunity to change his mind about letting Bitty focus on figure skating. 

* * *

Jack was curled up in the backseat with his head resting against the window. He had pulled the hood of the sweatshirt he wore under his Penguins jersey up so it would fall over his eyes and block the street lights.

"Tired, kiddo?" his mother asked.

Jack turned, so he could see her. He was feeling a mixture of exhaustion and happiness and adrenaline and disappointment. It was easier to just nod instead of explaining this, though, so he hummed softly and said, "Uh huh."

"Mmm, are you gonna be able to get up for school in the morning?"

His mother had been reluctant to let him go to tonight's game simply because it was on a school night. He had been so happy, though, when his dad said they had tickets to the Canadiens game against the Penguins. He had been determined not to let something as silly as school keep him from going so Jack had spent at least two hours making promises to get up the second his mother told him it was time to get ready.

"I will," Jack said. "I promise."

His mother smiled at him, soft and affectionate it. "If you say so, mon pengouin."

"I will," Jack said, slightly more insistent because she sounded like didn't believe him.

"I know," she said. She reached between the seats, patting him on the knee. "Why don't you go ahead and sleep? We'll wake you up when we get home."

His blood was thrumming through his veins, alight with the excitement that came with watching a good hockey game, but the combination of the late hour and the disappointment that came with the Penguins losing had his eyelids heavy with sleep.

"Mmkay," Jack mumbled. He slumped against the side of the car again, resting his head back against the window.

He drifted off to sleep with the sound of muffled Montreal traffic coming through the window and his parents voices flooding the car. 

* * *

Kent was standing in a corner of Kurt's living room, absently snapping a Hershey's chocolate bar into tiny piece, when someone said, "Hey! Han Solo! We match!"

He turned to his right, where the speaker's voice had come from, to find a girl he didn't know standing next to him. She was dressed in Princess Leia's white robes. She wasn't wearing a wig, instead her natural long, brown hair had been styled into Leia's traditional buns. She had bright green eyes that were focused on Kent and her lips, a shade of pink two shades too dark to be entirely natural, were tipped up in a happy smile.

She was pretty. Really, pretty.

"We do," Kent agreed.

"How do you know Kurt?" she asked. "I mean you don't go to school with us, right? I feel like I'd have noticed another Star Wars fan."

Kent shook his head. "I go to Fillmore. Kurt, Charlie, and I play on the same hockey team."

"Oh! You know Charlie too?"

Kent asked, "Is it even possible to know Kurt without knowing Charlie too? They're always together."

She let out a small laugh. It was a pretty sound. It reminded him the music his mother played during Christmas time, all soft bells and tingling instruments. "You have a point. Those two are attached at the hip."

"Soulmates," Kent said in explanation.

"I wouldn't know," she said. "I haven't meant mine yet. Have you?"

"Yes," Kent said with a small nod. He'd spoken to Bitty and Jack before leaving for Kurt's Halloween party, talking to them as he pulled on his costume and explaining that they were having the Halloween party the weekend before Halloween because Charlie's birthday was in two weeks and if they waited a weekend the two would have been too close. "We aren't like Kurt and Charlie though. They don't live in New York."

"Oh, that must be hard."

"Sometimes," Kent said. Not really wanting to dwell on his separation from his soulmates, not when it was on October and their next meeting was so far away, he held one of the pieces of the chocolate bar he'd been ripping apart towards her. "Do you want some?"

"You're sharing chocolate?" she asked, both amused and surprised as she took the square from him. Their fingers brushed as she did and Kent realized how soft her skin was.

"No reason not too," Kent said with a small shrug. "There's a whole bowl of it and Charlie's allergic so if the guests don't eat it, Kurt's parents will just throw it away."

He spent a good portion of the night with her, either talking in the corner about what other movies they liked or sitting next to each other when they all gathered to play a game, and the longer they were together the more Kent understand why the older boys at school always seemed so enamored by the girls in their classes. 

* * *

"You don't like your pumpkins to have smiley faces?" Bitty said, frowning a bit.

It was Halloween day and he was sitting out on his front steps with a giant pumpkin in his lap, a marker in his hand to draw what he wanted his mother to carve into it. She was sitting to him, scooping the insides of the pumpkin that would be hers out and dumping them into a large plastic bowl with the ones from his. They would cook with them later, roasting the seeds and making as many pumpkin dishes as caught their fancy. Some of them they would keep and some of them they'd give to their neighbors or the local shelter.

He'd only gotten home from school an hour or two ago, so it was a little for his phone call with Jack and Kent but they'd agreed to have it before they all went out trick-or-treating.

"I just think it's more fun to carve something scary," Kent said. "To make it all growly and stuff, you know?"

"Why would you want a scary pumpkin though?" Jack asked. While Bitty was a bit put off by the idea, Jack just seemed genuinely confused and caught off guard.

"Because it's Halloween!" Kent said, sounding exasperated. "It's not all about candy, you know? There's should be tricks and scary stuff, too!"

"But all that stuff is scary," Bitty said, stressing his final word.

"Well, yeah, but that's what makes it fun, right?"

Bitty didn't really agree, so he just let out a speculative, "Uh huh..."

* * *

"Jack! Hey, Jack! Wait up!"

At the sound of his name, Jack looked up to find Matthew pushing through the hallway to reach him. The two of them had spoken a bit last year, Jack had helped him figure out how to do a homework assignment and afterwards Matthew had kept starting conversations with him when they had free time, but they hadn't had much interaction since the new school year had started.

"Hello?" Jack greeted, a little confused as Matthew fell into step beside him.

"Hey," Matthew returned. He smiled, showing off a sliver of white teeth. "You're taking math with Mr. Tremblay, right?"

Jack nodded, "Yeah."

"Awesome. I have him later in the day and I've got no idea what he's talking about," Matthew said. "Do you think you could come over after school sometime and help me out? I'm pretty sure the only reason I passed last year was because you were helping me."

"Oh." Jack struggled to figure out how to respond. He'd never been invited to someone's house before, not even for something as simple as studying. Part of him wanted to accept the invitation, but another part of him felt nauseous at the idea of having this new experience and doing something wrong. "I have hockey after school most days..."

"No problem," Matthew said with a shrug. "I've got football. I don't have practices on the weekends though, do you?"

Jack shook his head. "Not usually, no."

"You can come over on Saturday then," he declared, smile widening as he came to his conclusion. "I'll get my mom to order pizza for us or something."

"That'd be um...fun?" Jack said, still a little uncertain about the whole situation.

"Awesome! I've got to get to history, but I'll come find you at lunch and we can figure out the details."

Matthew flashed Jack a final smile and patted him on the arm before rushing off to his class.

Jack walked to his class feeling a little dazed and confused, but with anticipation and excitement blooming hot in his chest.

* * *

"How was it?" Jack asked. His voice was soft and questioning, like he wanted to give Kent an opportunity to talk about the situation but wasn't sure if Kent was upset about it.

"It was good!" Kent said.

It was Thanksgiving and Kent was in the backseat of his fathers car. He'd been given the phone in order to make his phone call while they were driving since it was always a bit more difficult to arrange during holidays. It was easier to have it while Kent was in transit, so he could spend as much time with whatever family he was with at a given time, then to wait until he was exhausted at the end of the night.

Today was a little different though. Instead of going from the celebrations his maternal family was having to the celebrations his paternal family was having, his parents had picked him up from Jamie's mother's house. He knew his mother and Jamie had argued about it a few days ago, he'd heard his mother complaining that it was too much change too fast while Jamie argued that Kent was his son as well and his parents had a right to meet him, but ultimately they'd decided that Kent would spend the morning with Jamie.

He'd spent the night at Jamie and Angelica's place and then they'd driven up to Jamie's mother house. Around noon his parents had come to get him from there so they could make it to his Grandma Bennett's house before two. They'd have dinner with Grandma Parson later that night since she lived closest to them, only thirty or so minutes away from their home.

"Everyone was nice and stuff?" Bitty asked. "I heard mama tell Coach that everyone was worried Jamie's family wouldn't like you."

Kent hummed in thought. Things had been a little awkward when they'd first arrived that morning, like no one really had any idea what they were supposed to do with the fact that Jamie had shown up with a thirteen year old kid, but no one had been mean. When Jamie started telling them stuff about Kent, bragging about his hockey skills in that paternal way that his father did and talking about what Kent was doing in school, the others had started asking questions and nudging Kent into conversation with them.

"Everyone was good," Kent said. He saw his mother sit a bit straighter up front, angling her body towards him a bit. She wasn't being very subtle. "I don't really know anyone yet so it wasn't the same as being as my grandparents house, but it wasn't bad. I had a lot of fun."

* * *

Bitty was sitting on the small storage box that resided in their entry hall, his knee bent so his heel was on the bench with him and he could tie his shoe, when the front door opened.

He looked up to see his dad coming in the door, dressed in his little league team coach tee-shirt with a whistle around his neck and a playbook tucked under his arm, and saw the man stop when he spotted him.

"Hey kiddo," Coach Bittle said. He glanced to Bitty's side, noticing that the figure skating bag that Alicia and Bob had gotten him for his last birthday was sitting next to him. "Oh. Are you headed to the ice rink?"

"Yes, we are," his mother answered before Bitty could, coming out of the kitchen with her keys in her hand. "And we're already running late so we really have to get going."

"Running late?" Coach Bittle questioned. He glanced down at his watch. "I thought practices didn't start until five-thirty?"

"They don't," his mother said. "But today's a test day and Bitty wants to practice a few things first."

"Oh," his father said, drawing the word out. As Bitty hopped off the bench and set his bag down next to him, he reached out and ruffled his hair. "Well, good luck kiddo."

"You could come watch," Bitty said. "If you want."

There was a moment before his father shook his head. "I'm all sweaty from football practice and I need to shower before I go anywhere. I wouldn't want to make you late."

"Oh..." Bitty said, drawling off. "Okay then."

"Next time, though," his father promised.

Bitty nodded, even though there was already a heavy feeling of disbelief in his gut. His practices were always at five-thirty and he didn't this his dad would ever skip a football game, be it his little league team or his high school team or just one that was on TV, in order to come watch him skate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello again ladies and gents! Thank you to everyone who answered my first kiss question! It's not relevant /quite yet/ but the information definitely helped me out! 
> 
> 2) I'm undecided on whether or not I should start these chapters in August and cover the time after the split or jump straight to August. In this chapter we're experimenting with the jump. Let me know which you prefer though. 
> 
> 3) Bitty's first section feels like he's just...too conscious of the world around him in his first chapter? 
> 
> 4) The October section is pretty backloaded because I wanted Jack to go to the Penguins/Canadien game. 
> 
> 5) mon pengouin is possibly my favorite nickname I have ever created for a child. Just, imagine how happy that nickname makes Jack? At least right now? I mean when he's older - yikes? - but rn he's just so young and probably so happy to be grouped in with his father and his favorite hockey team. 
> 
> 6) Enter the beginning of a discourse that will appear frequently in this fic: ones sexuality vs the genders of ones soulmates. As well as: exploring said sexuality outside of your soulmates when you've met them but are too young to be with them. 
> 
> 7) I named Kent's school after Millard Fillmore who was the thirteen President of the United States. Idk if there actually IS a Fillmore middle/high school in New York, so it's not actually based on a real place. 
> 
> 8) I don't THINK anyone would be rude, but I do just want to remind everyone that the girl Kent is talking is also thirteen years old. So even though the conversation may seem like she's trying to figure out if he's on the market, it's all rather innocent. Kent just happens to notice that she's a very beautiful girl. 
> 
> 9) Google says that Canada does in fact do Halloween, but apologies if this information is wrong?
> 
> 10) I'm worried there's too much explanation - and that the explanation is confusing - in Kent's third section? What do you guys think? Did you enjoy having the details of Kent's celebrations or would you have preferred a quick overview? Also that section was supposed to be Kent's group section but it was actually pretty Kent-centric. 
> 
> 11) I ended this on a super sad note!! And I apologize for that!! 
> 
> 12) Not about the fic, but at one point I clicked paste instead of copy and the entirety of my Political Theory essay on Montesquieu and Rousseau got inserted in between Jack and Kent's sections.


End file.
